A different weasel makes a difference
by Antony444
Summary: Lord Walder Frey dies bedding his eighth wife just after his wedding . A death that just changes everything for Westeros ...
1. The Old Weasel Dies

**The Old Weasel Dies**

 _"Too late again, Frey!"_ Lord Hoster Tully, 298AC.

 _"Perhaps this is a blessing. Had he lived, there would have been another Frey."_ Edmure Tully, 298AC.

In time of peace, the passing of the lord of a noble house in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros was a tragic and solemn event. The death of Lord Walder Frey, lord and master of the Twins was without doubt the exception which confirmed the rule. Lord Walder Frey, born 208 years after Aegon's Conquest, died at the venerable age of 90 years old. In itself, it was a worthy accomplishment. What was not an achievement, however, was the dreadful reputation this Noble House had carried with Walder Frey at its head. As bannersmen of the Tullys , Lord Paramount of the Riverlands , the Freys made themselves famous by too often arriving late to battles , the most striking example being of course the Battle of the Trident in 282AC , where the forces of the Twins , numbering more than 3 000 men , arrived when the fate of the battle had already been decided . Lord Walder Frey became "the Late Lord Frey" this day. But what made Lord Walter Frey enter in the annals of Westeros history was the astounding number of descendants he sired. The man had by 298AC twenty-two trueborn sons, seven trueborn daughters and over a hundred descendants, base and trueborn counted. With a huge number of bastards sons and daughters, Lord Walder Frey placed a great emphasis on family loyalty, making all his descendants try to attract his favours, but was distrusted (to say the least) by his neighbours.

In the greatest indifference from the rest of Westeros (not even a representative of Riverrun was present); Lord Walder Frey decided in 298AC to remarry an eighth time. The name of the bride was Joyeuse Erenford, a sixteen year old girl. The night just after the wedding proved deadly for the participants. In the moment of action, Walder suffered a heart attack and died almost instantly while he was still carnally united with his new wife. The poor girl reacted badly to this very unwelcome event, and died soon after; suffocating from the weight of her dead husband (the girl had been tiny and frail, according to most witnesses). No one in the rest of the Twins hearing anything, the situation was not uncovered until the following morning, where a bastard daughter entered the room and realized something was wrong. At ninety years old, the lord of the Crossing was dead, caught a last time in the activity he liked above all the others.

The death of a lord could perhaps have brought attention to the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, except for another death happening in the same period. Three days earlier, Jon Arryn, Lord of the Eyrie, Hand of the King and Lord Paramount of the Vale had also passed away from this world. As a result, the accession of Ser Stevron Frey to the lordship was only an event that people recalled afterwards by rereading raven's messages. The only House which really acknowledged was the Tullys, their position as Lord Paramount of the Riverlands making sure of that. Hoster Tully, although quite ill, laughed and had a temporary reestablishment at the news. "Too late again! " figured prominently in the reaction of the lord of Riverrun.

The hostility between Lord Walder Frey and Lord Hoster Tully had been quite a bitter one, and the coming of the new Lord Frey at Riverrun did little to lighten the tensions. By then, Lord Hoster Tully was literally unable to do much except lie in his bed. The ceremony where Lord Stevron swore allegiance was one of the last times where Lord Tully was seen in public. Hoster's son, Edmure Tully, was seen behaving in a rather insulting manner towards his Frey guards. The Freys forming Lord Stevron's guard, in return, were not very impressed by Edmure beforehand, and the brief stay did nothing to reassure them. Stevron had initially planned to negotiate betrothals for his younger brothers and sisters, but the not-so well disguised poor opinion of the heir of the Riverlands forced him to change his plans. The only move in the game of thrones realized was the squiring of Walder's Frey, Jammos Frey's elder son (Jammos was the thirteen trueborn son of Lord Walder Frey) at Riverrun.

Once returned to the Twins, Lord Stevron Frey began then the titanic task of finding a wife or husband to each of his siblings. Efforts at first remained fruitless, not many knights or heirs being eager in marrying a noble they knew had absolutely no chance to accede to the lordship. The new master of the Twins was also trying to mend relations between the Mallisters, Lords of Seagard, and the Reeds, Lords of Greywater Watch. Progress on this path was made, more due to the recent discovery of the secret rearming of the Iron Fleet than any fondness of Lord Jason Mallister for the Frey family. What could have happened next is a mystery to this day. Ser Gregor "the Mountain" Clegane started a series of murderous raids in the Riverlands, raping, burning everyone and everything on his path. Edmure Tully, being in command due to the incapacity of his father, called his banners. The War of the Eight Kings had begun...


	2. The Battle for the Riverlands

**The Battle for the Riverlands (Part I)**

 _"The Lannisters make enemies very easily but have a hard time keeping friends."_ Haldon Halfmaester 300AC.

 _"A Lannister pays his debts."_ Lord Tywin Lannister, 298AC.

If there is one subject almost every maester and student of history in Westeros agrees upon, it is who began the first military actions of the war of the Eight Kings. While the acts of Ser Gregor Clegane and his band of assassins and murderers could be passed as a minor knight going rogue, the invasion of the Riverlands by the whole Lannister army was an open act of aggression that Lord Tywin Lannister, Warden of the West and Lord Paramount of the Westerlands, did not even bother to justify. The troops of Lord Piper and Lord Vance, which had been charged by Edmure Tully to defend the approaches of the Golden Tooth, were caught completely by surprise and overwhelmed in a matter of hours. Evidently, Ser Jaime Lannister the Kingslayer, along with more than 40 000 men was not who they had expected to fight. Lord Vance was killed, most of the Riverlands force was destroyed and the survivors under Ser Marq Piper and the new Lord Karyl Vance were forced to retreat, leaving their lands wide open to attack.

What followed was terrible, even for a land where warfare was a custom such as Westeros. Edmure Tully, now aware of the danger he had authorised by dispersing his troops, gathered the majority of his available force under the walls of Riverrun. In turn, this left the Riverlands defenceless before the marauders of the Mountain, Ser Amory Lorch, and the rest of the Free cities' sellswords Tywin Lannister had hired. Entire villages were burnt, put to the sword or stripped of everything of value. The number of deaths among the common people reached the thousands, and the war had just begun. Having eliminated all resistance in the West, the Lannister forces divided in two armies. Jaime Lannister, with a force of nearly 15 000 men, advanced at full speed towards Riverrun, while Lord Tywin Lannister and an army of 20 000 men rushed in the core of the Riverlands, crushing the Tully bannersmen one by one. With his back to the wall, Edmure Tully chose to fight the Kingslayer's army in front of his fortress. It was a grave mistake. Not only the heir of Riverrun was a man having the bare notions of what commanding an army consisted on, a lot of his bannersmen were dispersed all over his lands, and many of his most important bannersmen had not fully mustered their forces at this instant . The Mallisters had not yet arrived, and only a Frey's vanguard of 200 men leaded by "Black" Walder Frey was present. On the other hand, Jaime Lannister was a very aggressive commander, whose tendency to attack and attack until something broke was well -known. As a consequence, the First Battle of Riverrun (as it then became known) was a clear and decisive victory for the Lannister army. Dozens of knights and lords, including Edmure Tully himself, were taken prisoners. Lord Tytos Blackwood, lord of Raventree Hall, managed to take command of the battered army and withdrew to Riverrun. Jaime Lannister took chase, and soon besieged the Tully's fortress.

With most of the strength of the Riverlands under siege , prisoner , or dispersed , the army of Lord Tywin Lannister smashed its way without encountering any force able to oppose them . Most of the towns and fortresses were assaulted and burn, including Raventree Hall, Stone Hedge and Pinkmaiden. Harrenhall, lacking the number of men to be defended, was surrendered by Lady Whent. After less than a few months , the Lannister army was already sitting at the Crossroad Inns , where they were soon joined by a large band of mountain clans leaded by the recently liberated Tyrion 'the Imp' Lannister . This was not to say the Lions had had it all their way. The brutality and the carnage the sellswords and the marauders (of which the Mountain was the standard) had turned everyone, from the lowest peasant to the highest lord, against the lord of Casterly Rock. The supply lines of the Lannister were constantly raided and dispersed. If in the west it was Ser Marq Piper and Karyl Vance who leaded the resistance, in the east "Black" Walder Frey, the remnants of the Riverlands bannersmen and the surviving royal troops of Beric Dondarrion made themselves feared by the Essossi sellswords. The situation was critical for the Riverlands, especially as the forces of the Freys, numbering nearly 3 000 men, stopped their march at Fairmarket, refusing to go further south when chances of victory were so minimal. Lord Stevron Frey, soon joined by Lord Jason Mallister of Seagard was not very enthusiastic to try to relieve Riverrun, his own forces being severely outnumbered by the army of Jaime Lannister. Outriders of the Freys and the Lannisters clashed but an open battle remained an impossibility given the rapport of force.

Fortunately for the Riverlords (and unfortunately for the Lannister), the arrival of the Northern forces changed the strategic situation. Numbering 18 800 men under the command of Lord Robb Stark, the Northern host was a force the Lions had to neutralise quickly before it could meet with reinforcements. Lord Tywin Lannister , with the main army of the Westerlands , marched northward in the direction of the Twins , convinced House Frey would try to stay uninvolved in the whole conflict and therefore leaving the Northern army on the right bank of the Green Fork . Perhaps it would have been the case with the late Lord Walder Frey, but the man was dead. Lord Stevron Frey had already taken the field (although avoided any major battle so far), and his heir, Ser Ryman Frey, was commanding the Twins in his absence. The turn of the negotiations between Ryman Frey and Lady Catelyn Stark was particularly one-sided in favour of the North. As Lothar "Lame" Frey remarked afterwards, it was happy the Frey House still owned their bridge after the passage of Eddard Stark's wife. Ser Ryman revealed himself a poor negotiator, leaving Lord Robb Stark cross in exchange of the squiring of Olyvar Frey and the fostering at Winterfell of two young Freys (Walder and Walder Frey). The majority of the Northern cavalry, around 4 500 men, immediately crossed the Green Fork, along with one hundred Frey men to try to relieve Riverrun. The rest, the whole Northern infantry plus two hundred cavalrymen under the command of Lord Roose Bolton, descended south to defy Tywin Lannister's army.

The battle between the two forces was anything but worthy of figuring in the songs. Roose Bolton had long been acknowledged as a careful and cautious commander. Being outnumbered 14 000 to 20 000 made him even more so. Bolton's idea to trade land for time functioned for most of the day, the "battle" limiting itself to a duel of bowmen and outriders by each side. Losses on each army remained extremely limited. Given the retreat of the Northern forces by the end of the day, the victory went to the Lannisters, even if it was in reality a draw. Having realised the Northern cavalry was nowhere to be seen, the Lannister army abandoned the pursuit against Roose Bolton and marched at full speed south to reach Riverrun before Robb Stark and his forces. It was, ultimately, a futile endeavour.

The ravens sent by the Lannister main army having been slaughtered, Jaime Lannister had absolutely no idea of the danger coming from the north. In the mean time, the Stark cavalry had been reinforced by the Mallister-Frey force, creating a powerful force of 9 000 men. Which is why , once Ser Brynden "Blackfish" Tully began to chase the Kingslayer's sentinels in Piper and Vance colours , Jaime Lannister took 2 000 men and left camp for the Whispering Wood , intending to put an end to the threat once for all . While Ser Marq Piper was luring the Kingslayer north, Brynden Tully was killing his outriders, making the Lannisters essentially blind to their enemies movements. At the entering of a valley, the trap was sprung. In one instant, Jaime Lannister's force was encircled. In front of them, the Karstark forces. On the left, the main Stark and Mallister force. On the right, the Umber, Mormont and Glover cavalry. And behind them, most of the Frey infantry to close any hope of retreat. The Lannister forces, caught outnumbered on open ground, were slaughtered. Seeing the situation was lost, Jaime Lannister tried to force his way to slay Robb Stark in an open fight. The Kingslayer failed, but not before killing Eddard Karstark and Walder Rivers. Jaime Lannister was captured, minus his right hand that an enraged Torrhen Karstark cut trying to avenge his elder brother. The prisoners were approximately about a hundred knights and a dozen lords including Lord Gawen Westerling, Lord Quenten Banefort, Lord Regenard Estren, Ser Tytos Brax, Willem Lannister, and the Lannister cousins Cleos Frey and Tion Frey. Worse (for the Lannisters that was), no men escaped the trap to carry the news to the large force besieging Riverrun.

The large Lannister army, still numbering 13 000 men, was thus caught as much by surprise by the sudden attack as their former commander had been. What was particularly disadvantaging was that the siege of Riverrun had forced Jaime Lannister to divide his army in three camps. The first, attacked by Brynden Tully in the middle of the night, never knew what happened before being assaulted and dying by the droves. The leaderless camp, already weakened by the departure of Jaime Lannister, was overrun. The Westerlands soldiers of the other camps, woken up by the noise, tried to go to the rescue of their comrades but to no avail. Lord Andros Brax, now in command of the army, tried to cross with the rafts the Tumblestone. The defenders of Riverrun, also alerted by the beginning of the battle, unleashed their ballistae's and sunk most of them, including the one where Lord Brax stood. The Lannister soldiers, already demoralised by the death of the noble commanding them, watched terrified as the majority of the Northern army arrived on their flanks. Lord Tytos Blackwood, realizing the golden opportunity that had just been offered, sallied with most of the Riverrun soldiers, setting the siege towers and Western ballista aflame. This was too much for the majority of the Lannister army. With no hope of escape, the majority of the men surviving in the two camps surrendered. Only the third camp under the command of Ser Forley Prester managed to avoid annihilation, being placed in a position the Starks and the Tullys could not reach initially. The 2 000 men of this camp withdrew, retreating in direction of the Golden Tooth fortress, but suffered the defection of their outriders when the Tyroshi sellsword commanding them realised the pay for the entire army had been in the camp which had been attacked first. The battle was overall a complete disaster for the Lannisters, who lost nearly 11 000 men, dead, wounded or prisoners. For the price of 300 men, the Northern-Riverlands force had just scored two crushing victories.

In less than a week, what had been until there a decisive campaign in favour of the Lannisters was now turning to have a less than pleasant outcome. With two decisive defeats, the armies of Lord Tywin Lannister were now cut from any supplies coming from Casterly Rock. The siege of Riverrun being lifted also allowed the majority of the Riverlands troops that had been dispersed to gather again. In this atmosphere, the execution of Lord Eddard Stark and the coronation of King Renly Baratheon were news that were welcomed by the two sides with stupefaction and anger (for the Northern lords). The Battle for the Riverlands, far from being over, was entering a new stage...


	3. The King in the North

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. If the contrary was true, the Winds of Winter would have published five years ago (at least).

Revan3363: Answering this would spoil too many things... PM me if you want the answer.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for the review.

Matt Quinn: Edmure is an average commander (very average) and suffered in his first battles from a lack of experience (no recent wars) and bannersmen who are not particularly eager to obey his orders.

As for Bolton, he had even less soldiers than he had in canon to defy Tywin, so he wasn't going to charge the Lannister army head-on...

 **The King in the North**

 **The Battle for the Riverlands Part II**

 _"Whatever you decide, I shall never call a Lannister my king!"_ Ser Marq Piper, 298AC.

 _"My Lords! Here is what I say to these two kings! Renly Baratheon is nothing to me, nor Stannis neither. Why should they rule over me and mine, from some flowery seat in Highgarden or Dorne? What do they know of the Wall or the wolfswood or the barrows of the First Men? Even their gods are wrong. The Others take the Lannisters too, I've had a bellyful of them. Why shouldn't we rule ourselves again? It was the dragons we married, and the dragons are all dead .There sits the only king I mean to bow my knee to, m'lords .The King in the North!"_ Lord Jon 'Greatjon' Umber, 298AC.

It was at the Trident that the host of Lord Tywin Lannister learnt that the rescue of the Riverrun besieging force had become impossible, because said army had ceased to exist. To complicate the situation, most of the noble Western families had one of their members taken prisoner, with the Lannister of Casterly Rock being no exception. Jaime Lannister had been severely wounded at the Whispering Wood before being sent in the prisons of Riverrun (rumours said Edmure Tully himself introduced his 'guest' to his new arrangements ) and with him a fourth of the Westerlands commanders were suddenly not in position anymore of waging war , being dead or prisoners of the Tullys .Once one took into account the executions ordered by King Joffrey Baratheon ( more and more considered a Lannister at that moment ) , the Lannister army could not be sure the Riverlands and Northern lords would not threaten to execute the men they were holding captive . Not that was the extent of the bad news. The army of Lord Roose Bolton was carefully following them (as a few deserters learnt to their misfortune). With Robb Stark at Riverrun and the rest of the infantry behind them, the risk of being caught between two armies was very real. At the same time, the Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister had ordered her father to come defend the capital against the Baratheon brothers . Now cut from direct contact with the Westerlands, Lord Tywin Lannister barely glanced at the order, sending instead his son Tyrion Lannister to King's Landing in order to act as Hand in his place. The rest of the army left the camp of the Crossroads Inn, abandoning all their gains north of the Ruby Ford and marched to Harrenhall. Gregor 'the Mountain ' Clegane sacked Darry with his outriders , utterly ravaging the keep and the village near it .The rest of the Lannister outriders and sellswords, among them Ser Amory Lorch and Vargo Hoat , were unleashed around the God's Eye and started a reign of terror . Now cut from its bases, the Lions burned and grabbed everything they could, atrocities succeeding to atrocities. The hate between the Riverlands and the Westerlands reached new levels, which would persist for generations.

At Riverrun, the Northern-Riverlands army was celebrating its crushing victory over the Kingslayer. While the path to the West was far from open, the fortress of the Golden Tooth defending the access of the Westerlands, the military situation was infinitely better than it had been a few days ago. That was not to say there were not motives of dissatisfaction. While it was not openly discussed, the Riverlands bannersmen had been far from impressed by the conduct of the recently liberated Edmure Tully in the defence of their lands. Some of the important lords of the Trident , along with most of the knights , agreed that there would be several questions to answer for the soon-to be Lord Paramount , the health of Lord Hoster Tully having recently took a turn for the worst . The presence of an unvanquished Lannister army roaming across the Riverlands was also widely debated. The delay between the beginning of the war and the arrival of the Northern host had also allowed time for ravens coming from Seagard. According to them, the whole Iron Fleet had rebuilt and Balon Greyjoy had mustered all his naval forces at Pyke. The history of the previous Greyjoy's rebellion made a dire prediction of what could now happen.

At the table gathering the most important lords, the commanders tried to decide the new direction of the war. The first proposition was to march west, and ravage the Westerlands in revenge for the fate of the Riverlands. The second was to march east and assault Twin Lannister with the combined forces of the Tullys and the Starks. Both options had their advantages and their drawbacks, leaving the final outcome undecided. The debate considering who the Riverlands and the North would swear allegiance in the ongoing conflict was more vicious. Most of the Trident lords, having had recently their castles burned by Lannister troops, were completely hostile to any idea of swearing an oath to a member of the Lion's House. And as Joffrey I Baratheon was a Lannister, who to aggravate things, had executed the Lord Paramount of the North, many lords declared their eagerness to choose alternatives.

By then, news of the marriage of Margaery Tyrell and Renly Baratheon was common knowledge in Riverrun. The problem was that Renly Baratheon was only King Robert's younger brother, and nowhere near the top in the order of succession. By the laws of the throne, Joffrey was first, then Tommen, Myrcella (depending or not if you counted daughters before uncles) and Stannis. Renly was only in fifth position for the Iron throne. As Lord Jason Mallister made it remark, it had the potential of becoming a new Dance of the Dragons (without the fire-breathing lizards of course). Others were more realist, and underscored an alliance with King Renly the first of his name would bring the Stormlands, the Reach, the Riverlands, the North and possibly the Vale together. But these men were a minority. Renly, from the beginning of his paramountcy of the Stormlands had not made a lasting impression among the lords present. His habit of wearing the most expensive clothes armours, buying onerous perfumes and then being beaten at every tourney he participated was well-known. As for Stannis, his chances of the North swearing allegiance were even weaker. Stannis was respected for his indestructible sense of duty by his fellow lords but it stopped there . The popularity of the second of the Baratheon brothers had always been minimal among the common folk, he had only a girl for heir, and the banners under his command consisted of only Dragonstone and the Narrow Sea Houses.

In the end, the men and women assembled in the Great Hall of Riverrun made their choice. Stannis (assuming he claimed the throne) and Renly, the Baratheon brothers, were choices many commanders felt were unknown quantities .No men had come to help to fight against the Lannisters. So why bend the knee? If the choices available were not pleasant, then create a new one was needed. After a proposition made by the Lord of Last Hearth Jon 'Greatjon' Umber , the nobles present in the Tullys fortress declared for Robb Stark , who became the first King in the North since the surrender of Torrhen Stark three hundred years ago . In the last days of the year 298AC, Robb Stark, Lord Paramount of the North, was crowned King of the North and the Trident. Where there had been only one monarch before, now the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros had three .The foundations of the kingdom forged in fire and blood by Aegon the Conqueror were now rapidly collapsing, in complete contrast of the apparent stability of Robert Baratheon's reign. For better or for worse, events didn't stop there...


	4. A Dysfunctional Family

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. And not only because I would hate look like GRRM.

Truth Is What You Make Of It: Will do my best, but remember English is not my primary language.

wingofpain : I chose the "history book format" for this story because I felt it would be a) easier to write b) more fun.

Revan3363, Master of Dragons God : Thanks.

 **A Dysfunctional Family**

 _"I ask you, why did the gods inflict me with brothers?"_ King Stannis Baratheon, 299AC.

 _"There is no creature as terrifying as a truly just man."_ Lord Varys, 299AC.

'Normal' and 'united' were never words that had been used to describe the Baratheon family, forming the Royal family and the lord Paramount of the Stormlands. Since the ascension of Robert, the eldest of the family to the throne, things had grown considerably worse. Robert and Stannis had always had a strained relationship, which was mostly the eldest fault. For all his loyalty, Stannis had never been happy to be "awarded" Dragonstone and the Narrow Sea while his younger brother Renly was given Storm's End and the title of Lord Paramount of the Stormlands. Matters had grown considerably worse after the marriage of Stannis to Selyse Florent (which was according to every witnesses having met her , a woman that the Maiden had been quite angry with ) when King Robert found nothing better to copulate with the prettier , younger sister in the planned marital bed .The Greyjoy Rebellion , where Lord Balon Greyjoy crowned himself King of the Iron Islands , did nothing to repair familial links : Stannis was not even acknowledged for his role in smashing the Iron Fleet at Fair Isle , while minor lords and second sons were granted lands and rewards by the king . When Robert I died from injuries suffered from a boar, Lord Stannis Baratheon was at Dragonstone, sinister fortress that was now his after the last Targaryens had been evicted. Lord Renly Baratheon, who had been at King's Landing at the moment of his brother's death, soon fled the capital for Highgarden, evidently fearing the fate of Lord Eddard Stark would be his if he remained at court. Immediately, the Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister wasted no time at all to demand the allegiance of the two brothers (and for that matter the rest of the kingdom's lords) or be declared traitors to the Crown. Neither of the Baratheon brothers was stupid or naive enough to run to the capital , especially after the execution of Lord Eddard Stark in front of the Sept of Baelor ,especially when it had been agreed the lord would be authorised beforehand to join the Night's Watch .

Soon, the Lannisters, the Tullys and the Starks tore each other apart in the Riverlands. But in King's Landing, another type of madness had taken hold. King Joffrey I Baratheon was on his way to become the most unpopular man of the realm since Aerys II "the Mad King ", which was quite a feat indeed. The fact that the young king was able to do literally as he wished, without any supervision of the Royal Council, was a subject of consternation. King Joffrey broke centuries of tradition by dismissing Ser Barristan Selmy of the Kingsguard , replacing him by Sandor 'the Hound' Clegane and naming the Kingslayer Jaime Lannister as Lord Commander (which was done before his capture at the Whispering Wood ) . Lord Janos Slynt, commander of the City's Watch (more commonly known as Goldcloaks) a man known to be completely corrupt and of mild intelligence, was named Lord of Harrenhal. The first activities of the new king appeared to order the Kingsguard to beat his betrothed Sansa Stark , judging knights to fight to death for petty reasons , and planting the heads of 'traitors' (which could mean anybody that was not a Lannister ) on pikes for everyone to see . A reign of terror had begun at the capital, and the common folk cursed the day Joffrey Baratheon the First of his name had taken the throne.

The decision of calling everyone who didn't come to swear fealty at King's Landing had already created its issues among Westerosi nobility, none of them particularly 'good'. Except the Crownlands Houses, almost no noble came to bend the knee to King Joffrey. Ravens coming from the south explained quickly the reason. Ignoring the laws of succession, Renly Baratheon had been crowned King of Westeros at Highgarden and wedded Margaery Tyrell. The near totality of the Reach and Stormlands lords, gathered in the Tyrell citadel, pledged their swords to his service. Lord Mace Tyrell, Lord Paramount of the Reach, called his banners and the newly crowned King Renly did the same for the Stormlands. Tens of thousands infantrymen and cavalrymen were mustered, and a titanic host was gathering at Bitterbridge on the Mander.

His older brother, Stannis Baratheon, also made his moves. More conscious of the need for legitimacy, Stannis accused the Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister of incest with her brother Jaime Lannister. While no proofs were advanced, this indeed made Stannis, as the elder of Robert's brothers, the legitimate candidate as King of the Seven Kingdoms. Calling the Houses of the Narrow Sea , Stannis proclaimed himself King of Westeros at the fortress of Dragonstone , and prepared his fleet and a curious mix of self-made knights , impoverished nobles and sellsails (it wouldn't do to call them pirates ) for war . A more worrying factor was the abandonment of the Faith by the King, a Red Priestess named Melisandre of Asshai converting many men on the island to the service of the Lord of Light R'hllor. When the Red Priestess managed to survive a poisoning attempt, Stannis I ordered all the statues of the Seven destroyed. Melisandre proclaimed Stannis Azor Ahai reborn and gave him a burning sword supposed to be the legendary weapon Lightbringer. Religious matters aside, the eldest Baratheon alive lacked the men to back his pretensions to the throne, even with the modest force of Goldcloaks defending the capital. In the first weeks of 299 AC, his efforts of rallying major lords having miserably failed, King Stannis sailed from Dragonstone. But his objective was not the capital this time. And had it not been for the participation of the Greyjoys and the Starks into the war, maybe the conflict would have been called the Baratheon Succession Crisis.

For the people of King's Landing who were not wealthy, all of this was unimportant. The coronation of King Stannis and King Renly had sent King Joffrey in a murderous rage, the new monarch talking about leading the army himself against his 'uncles' .All of those present at the Royal Council knew it was not possible. The two new kings had cut the source itself of food supply that King's Landing, a city of half a million inhabitants desperately needed to survive, making the capital a place of trouble and uncertainty. Without the possibility of leaving Blackwater Bay or going south searching for more food, King's Landing common folk started slowly but surely to starve. The arrival of Tyrion 'the Imp' Lannister to act as Hand of the King (to replace his father Tywin fighting in the Riverlands), was not seen by the general population as a motive of hope. Not when the son of the Lions brought with him a couple of hundred warriors (although barbarians was more appropriate) belonging to the Clans of the Moon .And while the 'free' executions ceased almost instantly, the food that had ceased to arrive didn't magically come back. The long wait for the Iron's throne decisive battle had begun...


	5. The Mountain and the Fish

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. My bank account would be much wealthier if I owned it.

Matt Quinn: Good point, though it doesn't stop Joffrey from being, well, Joffrey...

Master of Dragons God and Guest: Thanks!

 **The Mountain and the Fish**

 **The Battle for the Riverlands Part III**

By Westerosi standards, the civil war that had just started in 298AC was the more devastating conflict in the last fifty years. Even Robert's rebellion, fifteen years ago, had not been such a bloodbath. In less than six months, the number of casualties among the knights and the lords had reached the hundreds. For the warriors, the thousands. For the common folk, no one had any idea, and no one had the idea where to begin. The responsibility of this general massacre, while shared by both sides, was heavily in the Lannister's balance. Now refugied in the huge fortress of Harrenhal, Tywin Lannister was waiting his hour. Hundreds of his scouts and outriders, led by a group of his most bloodthirsty bannersmen were burning the Eastern Riverlands on his orders.

As a result of this senseless butchery, the area around the God's Eye was stripped of almost anything necessary for humans to live. The men of the Westerlands, however, were not any more masters of the area. Firstly, the group of knights and soldiers leaded by Lord Beric Dondarrion was revealing itself to be an irritating nuisance. Despite all the efforts of the Lions, the Thunder's Lord was proving itself impossible to kill. Rumours abounded that Lord Beric had already been killed half a dozen times (and by several different witnesses), which added to the mystic of the group's cause. Another group of resistance was 'Black' Walder Frey and his band of knights, although the methods of the latter were more associated with brigands than the rules of chivalry. While these groups threatened the supply of the Lannister army, the Tullys and the Starks advanced their pieces. Edmure Tully, for his poor performance in the battle of Riverrun, had been relegated to the command of Riverrun proper. The command of the Riverlands host, a massive force of 8 000 men, was now commanded by his uncle Ser Brynden 'Blackfish' Tully. The army immediately left Riverrun and advanced in the direction of the East. In a move that was too coordinated to be a coincidence, Lord Roose Bolton and the Northern host also advanced southwards to take the Ruby ford. By advancing from two different directions, it had been the hope of forcing the lord of Casterly Rock to sally out Harrenhal, a position they had no hope of storming in a thousand years. But the Old Lion was too wise to take the bait and didn't act, even when a band of a hundred Tyroshi on his pay were wiped out near Stone Hedge. Given that Ser Brynden and his forces could not be everywhere, Gregor 'the Mountain' Clegane was continuing his slaughter in the lands near the Trident. The reputation of the man, already infamous due to his participation in the murders of the Targaryen children, were now enough to inspire terror in the fiercest heart. Even his own men were not standing around him, fearing the Mountain's fury as much as their enemies.

While these movements were happening, the new kingdom of the North and the Trident was taking form in Riverrun. Already, reality was coming back there, as ravens sent to the Iron Islands and the Vale found no answer. Lord Jason Mallister's naval forces at Seagard were already in alert for Ironborn raids, having lost one of their lost ships to 'unknown causes'. The original plan, which had been to send Theon Greyjoy back to his father, was scrapped before having taking place. Lady Catelyn Stark was given the title of Regent in the North, and went back to Winterfell to prepare for what everyone believed was imminent: a new Greyjoy rebellion. Ser Helman Tallhart who had been left at the Twins (the character of Ser Ryman Frey being a bit reminiscent of his grandfather) was going north too, as the new commander of Moat Cailin. Newly crowned Robb Stark the first of his name was adamant to not be cut from his bases, an opinion that many of his commanders shared. The Iron Islands situation raised a serious issue of a new strategy, however. On the one hand, the Northern forces were not in any danger of losing their gains in the Riverlands. The combined Riverlands-Northern force was still outnumbering substantially the Lannisters, allowing them to go on the offensive.

On the other hand , nothing had really been done to put fear in the heart of the Westerlands soldiers .With the fortress of the Golden Tooth blocking the most direct access to the West (and Deep Den guarding the other ) , reports were already coming of a new Lannister army being formed at Casterly Rock . Ser Stafford Lannister , a man who was acknowledged as a very average commander , was charged to train and equip them until Lord Tywin decided it was time unleash his soldiers and crush the Riverlands from two sides . It was a brilliant strategy, with a drawback that everyone could see it coming from a long way. The Northern cavalry, which had been left in reserve since the Second battle of Riverrun, had the firm intention of disrupting this plan. Scouts already began their study of the Golden Tooth approach for the soon-to-be-coming Western offensive.

Diplomatic relations with the other Kings remained an extremely debated subject among the Northern and Riverlands forces, though, and the creation of a delegation to be sent to King Renly Baratheon was decided almost immediately after the relief of Riverrun. But with the Southern Riverlands a land extremely disputed between Lannister and Tullys soldiers, the travel to Highgarden was anything but safe. This was the reasoning of King Robb Stark (and his senior commanders), who flatly refused to send his mother Lady Catelyn in the middle of the fighting (and sending her north with a large escort instead). The name of the man leading this delegation was to be Ser Wendel Manderly, accompanied by a dozen second and third sons of Riverlands and Northern lords. Just after the group of emissaries' departure, nearly 6 000 cavalrymen leaded by the King in the North left Riverrun and recaptured Wayfarer's rest from the light Western garrison defending it. King Robb Stark had no intention of stopping there, and his army after a brief moment of pause marched further west. The Invasion of the Westerlands had begun...


	6. The Wolves ravage the West

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I wouldn't have limited myself to dragon and ice-eldritch abominations for magical beings if that was the case.

Darth Cruel, Revan3363, Master of Dragons God : Thanks for the support by reviewing.

 **The Wolves ravage the West**

 **The Invasion of the Westerlands Part I**

 _"If you want to make a Lannister cry, take his gold!"_ Lord Jon 'Greatjon' Umber, 299AC.

 _"There was no sorcery involved. Simply the imbecility of a poor commander, who didn't even bother to put sentinels to guard his camp."_ Tyrion Lannister, commenting on the Battle of Oxcross, 299AC.

With the main pass guarded by the fortress of the Golden Tooth and the remnants of Jaime Lannister's army, the lords left in command of the Westerlands believed to be safe from any Northern reprisal. They were completely wrong: that one fortress guarded the fastest and easiest way to go to the Westerlands didn't mean others didn't exist, just that were less practical and more difficult to find. As the Northern army was about to demonstrate. Led by the direwolf Grey Wind of King Robb Stark, the cavalrymen forming the invading force evaded the Lannister sentinels without anyone noticing it.

Unaware of the danger, Ser Stafford Lannister had gathered a new army at Oxcross. While fairly impressive in numbers (nearly 11 000 men ) , this army was in reality for the moment anything but .Of the entire new army , nearly five hundred could be considered veterans . Another two thousands could be considered soldiers. The rest , which was most of the 8 000 men left , were in the majority young men recruited in Lannisport and Casterly Rock that had been promised wealth and adventure . Making this disparate formation a real army was supposed to take a lot of training and time: neither Ser Stafford nor his senior commanders imagined having to fight a battle or even a minor skirmish before at least several fortnights if not months. They should have known that no plan survived contact with the enemy.

Camping near the heart of the Westerlands, the Lannister camp had not even bothered to place sentinels, was not gathered in anything looking like military efficiency, and had not made any preparations to counter any eventual attack. Tyrion Lannister would later remark in King's Landing that should his opponent proved cooperative, it would have taken an entire day for the host to form a battle formation. As the 'Greatjon' would later exclaim it recounting his exploits "they were meat for the wolves". When King Robb Stark and 6 000 cavalrymen arrived at Oxcross in the middle of the night, there was no one to mount the guard. What followed was not a battle, but more a short slaughter followed by a general rout for those remaining alive . The direwolf Grey Wind plunged the horses in a pure panic, unleashing pure chaos in the encampment. When the Lannister soldiers came out of their tents to see what was happening , they had only a moment to see their horses fleeing and then realised they were attacked . While many decided to fight despite the fact they were completely outclassed, the vast majority of the recruits ran for their lives. The fight began and was over in a single moment. The Northern cavalry crushed like an irresistible wave the pitiful resistance. Ser Stafford Lannister himself was killed by Lady Maege Mormont while trying to rally his men. This was too much for the rest of the Lannisters. Without horses, escape was not a possibility and the men surrendered by the hundreds. The Battle of Oxcross was a total victory for King Robb Stark, who had just annihilated another army. 4 300 Lannister soldiers were dead. 2 200 were prisoners, among them Lord Roland Crakehall and Lord Antario Jast, Martyn Lannister and a hundred other significant knights and warriors. The rest of Stafford's army was dispersed and would not be a threat again. Losses for the North were insignificant.

With the army at Oxcross annihilated, the Westerlands as a whole had never been weaker since the lordship of Tytos Lannister, Tywin's father. Except Casterly Rock and Lannisport, the entirety of the Noble Houses and the Knightly Houses had sent the majority of their forces in the first hosts with Lord Tywin and Ser Jaime Lannister. What was left in terms of men had been sent at Oxford. Now they were virtually defenceless before the surprise assault of King Robb Stark. 'The Young Wolf ', as the King in the North was now called, decided to ravage the Westerlands to attract the attention of the lord of Casterly Rock. Given that approximately one sixth of the cavalry he commanded was coming from the Riverlands, these new orders were welcomed with a deep sense of satisfaction by his army. The Wolves were going to show that the Lannisters were not the only ones who paid their debts.

The castle of House Sarsfield, which had been at first ignored to not alert the army of Ser Stafford Lannister at Oxcross, was sacked by Lord Rickard Karstark. Maege Mormon captured thousands of all kind of livestock to bring them back to the devastated Riverlands. Edwyn Frey captured the gold mines at Nunn's Deep, Castamere and the Pendric Hills, seizing the equivalent of tens of thousands of dragons in treasure, and destroying most of the mines in question afterwards to ruin the Lannister's prosperity. Lord Jon 'Greatjon' Umber stormed the castle of Ashemark and the Crag, killing Lord Damon Marbrand, lord of Ashemark, and Ser Rolph Spicer, Castellan of the Crag, in the two fights .King Robb Stark himself seized the castle and town of Kayce, as well as Feastfires, capturing Lord Garrison Prester in the process. In a short amount of time, the Northern cavalry, profiting from the weak opposition, had ravaged the main sources of income of the Westerlands. At the rate of success of the 'young wolf' forces, soon nothing but Lannisport and Casterly Rock would be left. The only bad news were the renewal of the hostilities with the Iron fleet , which cancelled most of the plans to storm far-away places like the Banefort or Crakehall .

The news coming from their homeland didn't please the Lannisters at all. Ser Daven Lannister, Ser Stafford's son, was still struggling at Casterly Rock to reform the army of his father. Given that the remnants of said army were the ones that had ran faster than the rest at Oxcross, it would take too much time to give them a bit of bravery and experience. Lord Tywin Lannister, conscious that the Baratheons were fighting each other at Storm's End, decided the time of the decisive confrontation had come. The main Lannister army left its base of Harrenhal, and marched east to defy the Tullys. The Battle for the Riverlands was about to reach its critical point...


	7. Fury and Treachery

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I would show the battles happening if that was the case.

Revan3363, Master of Dragons God: Thanks for your reviews!

 **Fury and Treachery**

 **The Battle of Storm's End**

 _"Bring on your storm, my lord, and recall if you do, the name of this castle"_ Ser Cortnay Penrose 299AC.

 _"I propose that you dismount, bend your knee, and swear me your allegiance"_ King Renly Baratheon, 299AC.

 _"I'm going to kill Stannis. Follow me! "_ Ser Loras Tyrell, 299AC.

When the Royal Fleet of King Stannis Baratheon sailed south, the odds had never been so disadvantageous for the new sovereign serving the Red God. Aboard his ships, the elder Baratheon had brought approximately 6 000 men. The garrison of Storm's End alone was numbering 5 000 swords, which given the size and the reputation of the millenary fortress was too much to have any hope of storming it. Still, the men with the standard of the stag and the burning heart began to build their siege engines, waiting for the sign that King Renly, Lord Paramount of the Stormlands, had heard the news of their arrival. Knowing his younger brother, Stannis believed Renly would immediately rush to relieve the ancestral home of House Baratheon.

At the same instant this was happening, said king was remarkably unconcerned by the war. In fact, most of the maesters, strategists and lords of Westeros are still baffled today by the conduct of the youngest Baratheon. At the beginning of 299AC , the forces of King Renly were numbering more than 80 000 men at Bitterbridge , with at least 30 000 cavalry included in this host .With such a mighty force under his command , King Renly could have advanced in direction of King's Landing and taken the capital before any Lannister , Riverlands or Stark army could intervene . Instead, the King of the Reach and the Stormlands was throwing tourneys. Huge tourneys, where it rained food and drinks, as the rest of the kingdom starved. It was at the last of them, a great melee involving more than a hundred knights won by Brienne of Tarth (a woman some scorned as 'the Beauty') that the Northern-Riverlands delegation led by Ser Wendel Manderly arrived. Neither side was very impressed by the other. The Southern lords considered their Northern counterparts as upstart rebels wanting to break away from the Iron Throne ,and despite King's Renly somewhat tolerant attitude , the general behaviour was quickly to demand the Starks and Tullys allegiance , despite having no more royal right to the throne than them . The delegation coming from Riverrun, seeing the tourneys and feasts, were quick to label the Reach cavalry "Summer Knights", and refused to swear oaths, not impressed in the least by so far the total lack of contribution of the Reach and the Stormlands in the conflict. That Renly had created the 'Rainbow Guard', a force of seven knights supposed to be his personal Kingsguard (but with outrageous colours) simply stunned into silence the White Harbor knight and the soldiers with him.

It was at that point that the news arrived of King Stannis besieging Storm's End. Astonished by the stupidity of the Southern lords, Ser Wendel Manderly decided the time of negotiations was over. Many witnesses recalled the second son of the White Harbor master was disgusted by the Tyrell and Baratheon bannersmen , especially as his family had been exiled originally from the Reach .Only a small group consisting of Geremy and Merett Frey , along with a few soldiers , were to go to Storm's End to watch the situation unfold . The rest of the Northern envoys prepared to return to Riverrun. At this point, King Renly could still have salvaged the situation. Sending an heir of a Reach House as emissary to Riverrun would have been the wise thing to do diplomatically , and militarily a small force with an experienced commander (like Lord Randyll Tarly ) could have been enough to break the siege of Storm's End .As the later councils of war rapidly made clear , King Renly Baratheon did neither . With a lack of knowledge concerning logistics, the 'king of the South' ordered the vast majority of his cavalry, nearly 25 000 men, to march the following morning to rescue his lands. Ser Wendel Manderly left Bitterbridge to return to the Riverlands, which ended the prospect of a powerful alliance between two of the most powerful Westerosi hosts.

It was evident looking at a map, but Bitterbridge and the ancestral Baratheon fortress were far from a short travel, and by giving this order, Renly and his troops were cutting themselves from their lines of supply. When the forces of the Stormlands and the Reach finally arrived to their destination, their only option was a quick victory, otherwise the whole army would experience hunger for the first time. Fortunately, the forces of Renly outnumbered massively those of his brother, 25 000 to 6 000 men, without counting the powerful garrison of Ser Cortnay Penrose in Storm's End. The battle which was going to happen was so unequal Renly tried to open parlay with his brother .Melisandre of Asshai was carrying Stannis's banner, while Brienne of Tarth was carrying Renly's. Stannis, unwilling to let his rights of succession fall to his younger brother, refused all offers of negotiation. For him, King Renly was a traitor to his house and a man who defied all traditions and rules. The only thing the two brothers agreed to was that the battle would take begin at dawn the next morning .Despite the advice of commanders like Lord Randyll Tarly and Lord Mathis Rowan , King Renly refused to attack immediately , believing it would be an act not worthy of a knight . Unfortunately for him, his elder brother had not had the same weakness. What happened in the middle of the night was a question many have speculated upon. The answers, subjected to many debates and critics, are still contested today and were not properly searched before the end of the Eight King's War. To stick to the facts , a scream mounted from Renly's tent , and the two knights of Renly's personal Rainbow Guard guarding him ,Ser Robar Royce and Ser Emmon Cuy , opened and entered in the king's personal space , finding their sovereign dead , decapitated so neatly it was believed a Valyrian sword had done the deed . No one had any idea how the assassin had achieved such a thing: Renly's tent was in the middle of the camp, and not one of the hundreds soldiers guarding the approaches of the army saw anything.

To who the crime profited, however, was another story. There was only one man who benefitted from Renly's death and he was sleeping in the enemy camp facing them. Somehow, Stannis had assassinated his brother: that was the conclusion the Reach and Stormlands forces agreed to. Now the question was what to do, their liege lord being not longer in this world. They were brutally interrupted by Ser Loras Tyrell 'the Knight of Flowers '. There had been more than a rumour about Renly's sexual preferences, and some of them were evidently true. When informed of his king's death, Ser Loras killed Robar Royce and Emmon Cuy on the spot, believing the two knights had failed their sovereign. Following this execution (which reminded many the acts of a certain Jaime Lannister), confusion reigned in the camp.

As dawn arrived , Loras Tyrell had managed to gather nearly 2 000 cavalrymen personally loyal to his cause , and ordered the charge , ready to kill Stannis Baratheon and avenge his sister's husband (or his lover depending the version you prefer ) . Most of the men present didn't even arrive to the enemy's lines. Lord Alester Florent, master of Brightwater Keep, had decided to rally Stannis's cause, and his bannersmen's cavalry took Loras troops in the rear, completely decimating them. The Knights of Flowers was caught between the pike wall formed by Stannis's soldiers and the cavalry of the Florents. The Tyrell cavalry died or surrendered, and while Ser Loras Tyrell managed to slay an incredible number of Florent bannersmen, he was only one man, and was eventually made prisoner. Most of the cavalry left, which were Stormlords, wasted absolutely no time at all to discard their former vows and accept Stannis Baratheon as their new King. Not all of the army swore allegiance: Lord Randyll Tarly and Lord Mathis Rowan escaped, racing to Bitterbridge to warn the Reach forces stationed there of the disaster. Ser Geremy Frey of the Northern delegation escaped too, to warn Riverrun of the battle, although Merett Frey was less lucky (and drunk), slain by a Stormlands bannersman wanting to prove his valour by killing ' a Northern spy '.

Of the 25 000 men that had followed Renly's, 20 000 bent the knee to Stannis, proof that their devotion to their defunct king didn't extent even slightly in death. 400 men of noble birth, including Loras Tyrell, were now prisoners. 1600 men loyal to the Tyrells died in front of Storm's End, while Stannis's losses were less than two hundred. Less than three thousand Reach knights and lords escaped to return to their homes. However, Ser Cortnay Penrose, Renly's castellan inside the fortress of Storm's End, still refused to surrender, the main cause appearing to be the eventual fate of Edric Storm, one of Robert Baratheon's bastards. Several ideas were proposed to end Penrose's defiance: storming the castle (which would result in a bloodbath), mount a siege (which would take too long, autumn was already there) or blackmail (by threatening Penrose's father). The plans were in the end not necessary. After a parley beneath the walls resulted in another stalemate, Ser Cortnay Penrose was seen falling from one of Storm's End walls. As Penrose had just defied King Stannis to a single combat, the death was seen as strange, even for the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. This apparent suicide , shortly after the already suspicious murder of Renly Baratheon , put several lords and knights ill-at-ease , many suspecting the Red Priestess Melisandre of Asshai eliminating the persons opposing themselves to King Stannis . If the methods employed were awful, no one could deny it was effective. Lord Elwood Meadows, now in command of Storm's End, surrendered the citadel the next morning after Penrose's death. Ser Gilbert Farring became the new castellan, with 200 men at his command.

With now Storm's End and a massive army under his command, the odds that had been against Stannis Baratheon had been completely reversed. Turning his eyes northwards, the King that had been proclaimed as Azor Ahai reborn prepared his next move. Ordering his fleet to sail to Blackwater Bay, the Baratheon host started his march through the Kingswood. To King's Landing and destiny...


	8. This time We do it right

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. The military strategies would have some contact with reality if that was the case.

Guest, Matt Quinn, Master of Dragons God: Thanks for commenting on my story.

 **This time We do it Right**

 **The Second Greyjoy Rebellion Part I**

 _"What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger"_ Aeron 'Damphair' Greyjoy 299AC.

 _"Balon was mad, Aeron is madder, and Euron is the maddest of them all."_ Lord Baelor Blacktyde, 299AC.

Balon Greyjoy had always been considered a stupid man by Westeros as a whole. After all, what man would be as stupid as declaring war to a kingdom outnumbering his forces more than ten to one? The Greyjoy Rebellion of 289AC, as it was then called, lasted less than a year before the combined forces of the Seven Kingdoms crushed the Ironborn. Balon Greyjoy, self-proclaimed king of the Iron Islands, was forced to renounce his crown. His fleet had been mostly sunk, his two elder sons Rodrik and Maron were killed, and his youngest son Theon became a ward (and a hostage) of Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell.

With most of the Iron Islands' fortresses having been stormed, a careful man would have tried to put this idiocy behind him and become a loyal subject of the Iron throne. But Balon's faith in the Old Way was absolute, and his hate of the "greenlanders" (which was anyone except the Iron Islanders) continued to grow. While the rest of the kingdom forgot the Iron Islands, the Lord Reaper of Pyke rebuilt the Iron fleet and the other necessary warships necessary to carry the war once again over the waves. In this, he was supported by his two brothers Victarion Greyjoy, who was the Lord Captain of the Iron fleet, and Aeron 'Damphair' Greyjoy, who had become the spiritual leader of the Drowned Men, the main religion of the Iron Islands. Due to the defeat of the Greyjoy Rebellion, the Faith of the Seven almost disappeared from the Iron Islands, being considered as a "Greenlander religion".

Ships had only reached the Iron Islands to announce the death of Robert Baratheon that Lord Balon Greyjoy was already giving his brother Victarion the orders to muster the Iron Fleet. Hundreds of ships gathered at Pyke, answering the call of the Lord of the Iron Islands. Given the lack of maesters and foreign visitors on the Iron Islands, no one knew when the Krakens decided to enter the Eight Kings War officially. What was known , was that in the first months of 299AC Balon Greyjoy proclaimed himself King of the Iron Islands again , the fifth King in the current war to claim a throne and a crown as his own .

Despite the fact that his only surviving son was serving in the army of the King in the North, King Balon didn't hesitate to sink the Mallister ships sent to negotiate with him. At this point of the conflict, a logical strategy would have been to attack either the Westerlands (the Lannister fleet at Lannisport being the major threat to a direct invasion) or the Reach (Westeros most wealthy coast). Instead, listening only his thirst of revenge, King Balon decided to attack the North, a target that even in case of victory would give little money, thralls or saltwives. The Stony Shore, the Rills and the Flint Cliffs had always been areas with low densities of population, but that didn't stop the new King of the Iron Islands. Plans were made to attack Moat Cailin in force, all the while other Ironmen ships would ravage the coast to attract the Northern Lords out of their castles .Not having a single source of intelligence in the North (people there remembered what the Iron islanders were good for), the new strategy was already the recipe of an incoming disaster, with a few captains remembering how Rodrik Greyjoy had attacked Seagard ten years ago. The stubbornness and personality of Balon carried the day despite the objections, and the longships departed for the Northern seas.

For obvious reasons, the vast majority of the Iron forces, numbering between 6 000 and 8 000 men, had been placed under Victarion Greyjoy's command to seize Moat Cailin. The ruins of the old fortress, guarding the sole entrance of the North, were the key to keep the North and Riverlands armies to intervene. The Iron Fleet sailed straight into Blazewater Bay and the Saltspear unopposed, and then tried to sail in the Fever the longest distance possible to catch Moat Cailin's defenders off-guard. Needlessly to say, it didn't work at all. The crannogmen of House Reed had only one place to watch and it was Moat Cailin. The Neck was their home, and Ser Hellman Tallhart was soon aware enemies were coming at him by the west.

Most of the Ironmen assault force had already been depleted by their march in the inhospitable lands by diseases and unfriendly animals. Victarion Greyjoy had less than 5 000 men under his command to this point, while the Northern garrison was consisting of almost 700 men. To take Moat Cailin, even partially destroyed, it was not enough. The first assault launched in the middle of the night was easily beaten back. The second one, launched at dawn, was bloodiest, forcing the Northmen to retreat in the inner fortifications (consisting mainly of the three towers still standing), but the poisoned arrows of the crannogmen in the rear of Victarion's army forced the Lord Captain to retreat. Losses between crannogmen and Northmen were of almost three hundred. Ironborn casualties were approaching the two thousands, almost all of them dead, because no Ironborn was willing to surrender. Poison , the waters of the Neck and the bad logistics of the Ironmen took also their share of victims .Three days after the end of the second assault , Victarion Greyjoy was forced to order a general retreat , three quarters of his men being in no condition to fight anymore . Once again, the fortress of Moat Cailin had defeated the invaders of the North. Ralf Kenning, Dagon Codd, Harren Botley and several dozen captains remained forever in the swamps surrounding Moat Cailin, far from the seas they loved.

The others parts of the plan for the invasion of the North were not more successful. While the Ironborn managed to ravage the Stony Shore, it was more due to the fact that there was no castle or any fortress in the area. Direct assaults on Bear Island and Deepwood Motte failed, although Asha Greyjoy, Balon's daughter, partially managed to set the Motte on fire. The rare successes of the Iron forces didn't last. Reinforcements from Last Hearth, White Harbor, Winterfell and the North Eastern provinces massed their forces and counterattacked, driving the invaders away. House Glover, which had seen their familial home damaged by fire, joined them to hunt mercilessly the reavers. By then, the captains of the Iron Islands were ready to sail. Despite most of the small-scale raids having been unopposed, their hulls were more often than not going empty. The areas raided had been poor and too often lightly populated with a population preferring to die rather than becoming thralls and saltwives of the Ironborn. When Victarion Greyjoy ordered the retreat, not a single man of the Iron Islands remained behind. The Invasion of the North, supposed to be Balon's masterful plan, had made the North bleed, which with Winter approaching was going to have severe consequences. But ultimately, the greatest shock was waiting for them at Pyke...


	9. The Florent Heresy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. All credits and critics go to GRRM.

Master of Dragons God : I suspect Robert granted some leniency to Balon because of Eddard's presence, but also because it was fundamentally in his nature. Except for House Targaryen, Robert didn't punish that much the loyalist houses in canon, House Connington and others were the exception rather than the rule.

 **The Florent heresy**

 **The Battle for the South Part I**

 _"You have no longer the larger army, my Lord."_ Ser Erren Florent, 299AC.

 _"Kings and corpses always draw attendants."_ Ser Davos Seaworth, 299AC.

King Renly Baratheon was dead. Less than six months after his coronation, the man who had been the undisputed master of the South was no more. His regicide, most likely ordered by his own brother Stannis, plunged the Stormlands and the Reach in the chaos of the Eight Kings' War. One king had fallen, and now the lords sworn to him fought against each other for power. For the Stormlands, things were simple. Renly being dead, the citadel of Storm's End belonged to Stannis, Robert's only surviving brother. While Joffrey or Tommen Baratheon could have disputed the claim, they were at the capital and not in any position to claim the fortress. Given the lack of any alternative, save joining the Lannisters, it was not surprising the vast majority of the Stormlords swore allegiance to the oldest Baratheon alive. Very few warriors coming from this part of Westeros chose to not give their allegiance to Stannis, the most notable one being Brienne of Tarth, who went back to Evenfall Hall without denying Renly . But she was definitely the exception, and thousands of men flocked to Stannis new colours, sometimes even converting shortly after to the worship of R'hllor. After Ser Cortnay Penrose's death, all the statues of the Seven in Storm's End were immediately burned by the priestess Melisandre, and so was the ancient godswood present there. The Reach was a very different proposition. Apart from House Florent, whose treason had allowed Stannis to win the battle of Storm's End, very few members of the Noble Houses sworn to Highgarden chose to swear allegiance to King Stannis. Members of House Crane of Red Lake, House Meadows of Grassy Vale, House Mullendore of Uplands, House Fossoway, House Willum and House Varner rallied to the new master of Storm's End but not every member of the Reachlords made this choice.

Neither Randyll Tarly, Mathis Rowan nor Lady Arwyn Oakheart had stayed in the aftermath of the battle, instead choosing to race to Bitterbridge to carry the news of the first regicide of the war. They were not the only one to have this destination in mind. Ser Erren Florent and Ser Parmen 'the Purple ' Crane, along with a large escort of knights, rushed to Bitterbridge too. Except it was under King Stannis's orders. Bitterbridge was the place where the infantry that had been sworn to King Renly waited his orders (that now would never come). More than 50 000 men-in-arms being present there, it was vital for either side to secure this army. The future of the war could depend upon who was going to arrive first to present their version of the events at Storm's End.

In this race Lord Tarly and his companions had the advantage, even if they were less than a day before the Florents. But Stannis had the advantage in term of hostages. While very few major Reachlords had rallied the followers of R'hllor, the number of prisoners was another story. With Ser Loras Tyrell and other highborn knights being guarded in the dungeons of Storm's End, many Reach bannersmen could not act without losing members of their family. Randyll Tarly himself had not this issue to deal with. Arriving at Bitterbridge first, the lord of Horn Hill tried to torch the Florent stores and military supplies, as well as assaulting the Florents infantry, Lord Tarly preferring to put them to death rather than see them go over Stannis's side. It was a tragic mistake. Randyll Tarly, conscious that he wouldn't have the authorisation to act with Loras Tyrell prisoner, had decided to not inform Lord Mace Tyrell (who was at Highgarden) or Lady Margaery Tyrell (who was definitely at Bitterbridge) of his plans. News of the Florents treason had still not reached the ears of the Southern infantry, except as largely exaggerated rumours no one took seriously. As a result, the move to slaughter the Florent infantry by surprise was interpreted by the rest of the army (which was also unaware of the recent development) as a hostile act against them. In less than one hour, the soldiers of the Reach began to tear each other apart by the hundreds.

Once the information of Renly's death and the aftermath were finally known, fighting finally stopped. Unfortunately, it was too late to salvage the situation. Not only Ser Erren Florent and his group had arrived, rallying the forces of their House and bannersmen, but hundreds of soldiers had already fallen to their former comrades' swords. Of the nearly sixty thousand men to be present, between four and six thousand were dead or wounded. The battle of Bitterbridge had been as bloody as it had been unexpected. The survivors, on each side of the Mander, had reformed their lines. The bulk of the Reach forces, led now by Ser Garlan Tyrell, was now numbering approximately 35 000 men. On the other side of the Mander, between 8 000 and 10 000 men had taken the arms and cause for King Stannis. Ser Garlan Tyrell, who was now in overall command, could have pulverised the traitorous bannersmen of his family, but Erren Florent informed him that his brother Loras would pay this victory with his life .Ser Parmen Crane also demanded the Tyrell allegiance to King Stannis, but the second son of Mace Tyrell refused totally these terms. With Ser Loras Tyrell prisoner, Highgarden would not act against Stannis, but neither would the Tyrells help the Baratheons anymore. The Southern forces having stayed loyal to Highgarden retreated in the direction of Longtable, leaving the Florent and their allies go east to link with King Stannis Baratheon. That was not to say House Florent was not going to suffer the consequences of their actions. Ravens were sent to Highgarden, and Lord Mace Tyrell wasted no time to gather a second army in order to raze Brightwater Keep, the fortress of House Florent. In the mean time, Randyll Tarly and the men who had followed him came under severe critics for their questionable role in the battle of Bitterbridge and their inaction at Storm's End, which had allowed Loras forces to be captured.

The result of said battle introduced very mixed feeling on each side. On the one hand, King Stannis had just bolstered his forces with thousands of infantrymen, a very welcome support in the eve of the battle that would soon occur at King's Landing. These actions also swelled the numbers of the men following the Lord of Light by the thousands. On the other hand, the recent battle had ended all prospects of rallying the Tyrells to his cause. With the Knights of Flowers in the cells of Storm's End, the lord Paramount of the Reach Mace Tyrell could not act directly against Stannis, but his bannersmen who were under no restrictions would try to make his life miserable at every opportunity. Despite its lack of a king, the House of Highgarden was still in the game, and determined to push history to their advantage. Randyll Tarly, disgraced, was left guarding Bitterbridge and the Mander with 4 000 men, while the rest of the Reach army turned around and marched south to punish the rebel lords having sided with Stannis. War had come to the South...


	10. The Battle of the Fords

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I would have chosen other characters to tell the story it was the case.

Revan3363, Master of Dragons God : Thanks for the positive reviews.

 **The Battle of the Fords**

 **The Battle for the Riverlands Part IV**

 _"What do you mean by 'We don't know where the Lannister army is?' ?"_ Ser Brynden Tully, 299 AC.

Originally, the plan had been for Gregor Clegane and his band of rapists and killers to devastate the Riverlands beyond imagination. In itself, the plan was a success. What had not been planned by Tywin Lannister, however, was the destruction of the Westerlands begun by King Robb Stark in retaliation. Sitting in the fortress of Harrenhal, the lord and master of Casterly Rock assisted powerless to the arrival of dozens of ravens sent by the maesters of the Westerlands castles. Said fortresses had often been stormed by Robb Stark or one of his bannersmen by the time the raven arrived at the citadel of Harren Hoare. At first, the thought of the Lannister captains was to dismiss the news. Yes, Ser Stafford Lannister's forces had been badly beaten. But the Golden Tooth still stood , and it was obvious Robb Stark had not brought with him huge forces , as the Riverlands and Northern infantry were still there facing the Lannister armies . And whatever happened, Casterly Rock had never been taken, right? This assurance (it would never do to call it arrogance ) steadily diminished as the name of the holdfasts , castles , mines and other locations sacked and destroyed increased day by day . As autumn passed, the Western lords grew agitated. With the Starks destroying most of the supplies for the coming winter, the situation was worrisome. The only light in the ocean of bad news that came at Harrenhal was the conflict between the two Baratheon Kings. With King Renly and King Stannis settling their differences once for all, there was a window of opportunity to act against the Tullys. Outriders and sellswords were ordered to gather at Harrenhal. The Lannister army, the only surviving force the Westerlands had to offer, was going to march to war once again. Just after the return of the last scouts, the Western army left the black fortress. In the middle of the morning, the ranks of infantry and cavalry emerged from the camps by the thousands, marching west to defy the Riverlands lords.

While the Tullys and their bannersmen were not taken by surprise by the turn of events, the direction taken by the Lannister army was another story. Instead of trying to cross the Red Fork in the vicinity like it had been done in the first part of the war, the Westerlands rushed to the fords near Riverrun. The message was clear; while Lord Tywin intended to go save the West, he had absolutely no intention to leave the Riverlands army in his back intact. Brynden Tully, who had hoped engaging the Lannisters with the combined forces of the Riverlands and the North, was caught in his own stratagem. Roose Bolton and the Northern infantry had just crossed the Ruby Ford to advance in direction of Harrenhal. It was way too far to intervene in the coming battle. In simple terms, the choice became to let the Lannisters besiege Riverrun a second time (with a more skilled lord in command) or to repulse them at the fords of the Red Fork they had to cross .The Blackfish hesitated, but chose in the end the latter option, convinced Lord Tywin Lannister wouldn't go to the West without seeing most of the Tullys soldiers lying dead on the field. The advance guard, led by Gregor Clegane in person, was attacked just after they had crossed the river. One thousand Westerlands soldiers, who had been quite eager for battle, found themselves facing a much larger force, and one which was in no mood for pity given the sinister reputation of the Mountain. The Lannister van suffered huge casualties, but by their destruction they had revealed the trap which had been waiting the whole Western army should they had crossed unaware. After two more days of brutal skirmishes and feints, which this time happened in the vicinity of the Stone Mill's ford, the Lord of Casterly Rock decided to stop the offensive. The fords between the Lions and the West were too much defended to take them without unacceptable losses. The Lannister infantry and cavalry broke the engagement, and marched south in direction of the Stoney Sept.

In a pure tactical view, the Tullys and their allies were victorious, holding all the fords which made the crossing of the Red Fork possible. In the great strategy of the war, it was a Lannister victory. The plan agreed by Robb Stark and his bannersmen had demanded the destruction of the last Westerlands force, which would have forced the Lannisters and the Baratheons of King's Landing to sue for peace. Now, with the army in question showing no intention to stop south in its walk to the Golden Road, it was almost impossible to do it. Ravens were sent to the Westerlands, to inform the King in the North of the plan's failure. With the Battle of the Fords making the Western host retreat southwards, the Battle for the Riverlands was almost over, leaving only Harrenhal as the sole fortress not in the hands of any Riverlands or Northern force. In terms of men lost, the Lannisters lost close to a thousand and two hundred men, killed or prisoners, while the Riverlands host lost close to seven hundred warriors (but with less prisoners ). Very few lords fell in this battle; Gregor Clegane managed to escape, although a majority of his outriders didn't. The only significant death on both sides was Ser Robert Brax, who drowned in the crossing in his full plate armour. Various Essossi and Westerosi sellswords were used to bear the brunt of the fighting on both sides, a tactic that didn't help the desertion issue faced by every army in this part of the Seven Kingdoms.

As for the fate of Tywin Lannister, Tully scouts were unable to confirm where he had gone less than a fortnight after the Battle of the Fords. To the general surprise, the soldiers wearing red hadn't stopped at the Gold Road, instead continuing further south their march. As no Northern or Riverlander outriders or knights were stationed there, nothing could be done (Ser Wendel Manderly and his group had returned at Riverrun by now). But even if they had known the plans of the Lions, it would have been too late to act. As the great battle for the Iron Throne had begun...


	11. The Dwarf and the Invincible Fortress

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. All the work done and not done was GRRM's.

Revan3363: Thanks for the review.

Schwapp's: Thanks. I tried to imagine the story in a realistic fashion after what happened in canon. Of course, soon butterflies and magic are going to make this story unrecognisable from a canon point of view.

Matt Quinn: Yes, the sellswords tend to have bad reputations, which often encourage a general to use them as a meat shield, and of course begins a vicious circle because the sellsword commit their atrocities on people who can't fight back. The Battle for King's Landing begins in two chapters (including this one).

 **The Dwarf and the Invincible Fortress**

The Riverlands, the South, the West, the North: everywhere the human eye could watch, Westeros was in flames. But in this great conflict where too much kings and lords battled for supremacy among their peers, only one city really mattered in the end. King's Landing. The capital of the Seven Kingdoms, built three hundred years ago by Aegon the Conqueror, at a time where dragons ruled the skies and mighty armies clashed in epic confrontations. The dragons had disappeared, but the thirst for glory of the Andals and First Men descendants had not. From the lowest beggar to the Queen-Regent, everyone realised that sooner or later, a mighty army would come claim the Iron throne in the Red Keep. The only question, in fact, was who would arrive first...

The familial quarrels between the Baratheon Brothers (and the rest of the South) had been a god's present for Tyrion 'the Imp' Lannister, acting Hand of the King while his father was absent. As fifteen or so years of peace had passed since Robert's Rebellion, the capital city of Westeros had been totally and utterly unprepared for war. The Goldcloaks, the primary and most numerous force charged to defend the city, were utterly corrupt and unskilled concerning anything related to the arts of war. Scorpions, ballista and other siege engines were models that should have been replaced fifty years ago. Arrows, swords, armours and a whole list of other supplies that had to be in the stores had been sold to the highest bidder in time of peace. The formidable walls of King's Landing had also partially fallen in disrepair in certain places, leaving whole sections dangerously unprotected. It had often been said that Tywin Lannister had sacked by treachery the city in the last war because there hadn't been any other fast way to take it. Until Tyrion Lannister's arrival, such measures would have been absolutely not needed. Of course, there had been some half-measures ordered by the Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister, but most of them were those of a person that had never approached the vicinity of a battlefield. The Goldcloaks had been tripled in numbers, and the production of weapons of all sorts had been ordered in massive quantities. But as long as the underlying corruption that had led to the poor condition of the capital's defences was left unopposed, these measures were only a drop in the Narrow Sea.

The new Hand of the King wasted no time to act. Lord Janos Slynt, commander of the Goldcloaks and new master of Harrenhal (without having once sighted said castle) found himself arrested on grounds of high treason, corruption, murder, rape and a few other crimes that made his conviction an open case. "Lord" Slynt (as he wanted to be called) and two dozen of his worst officers were attainted of all their possessions, and given immediately the choice between the axe and the Night's Watch. Most chose the latter. The new commander, Ser Jacelyn Bywater, an old veteran knighted for his service during the Greyjoy's Rebellion, was the exact contrary of his predecessor, and began his efforts to rebuild the City Watch to a reliable standard. Despite being nearly 6 000 men strong , it was at the moment anything but reliable , having drunk , brutes , cowards who wanted bread , and above all , truly skilled men that Robert Baratheon had enlisted him nine years ago but who wholefully hated the Lannisters .Despite the adversity , work continued for the Lannister dwarf . The City's Watch was reinforced by Lannisters instructors, the buildings outside the walls were burned to avoid the enemy finding cover there. All the constructions near the River Gate were razed, a chain was forged to close the Blackwater Rush, important quantities of wildfire were prepared, and titanic ballista and catapults emerged from the smith's factories of King's Landing.

The political game hadn't been calmed in the slightest in the Royal Council with these military measures. In the power struggle between the Queen-Regent and the Hand of the King, things were turning sour and someone was going to pay. The someone in question was the Grand Maester Pycelle, who found himself in the black cells beneath the keep to have chosen the side of the Queen-Regent (according to the rumours). An attempt was also made to have the support of Dorne in the coming war. By betrothing Myrcella Baratheon to Prince Trystane Martell, offering a seat on the Royal Council and the men that had killed Elia Martell (who just happened to be Ser Gregor Clegane and Ser Armory Lorch), it was the hope of Tyrion Lannister to convince the Dornish Prince Doran Martell to enter the war on their side. This move in the Game of Thrones had however bloody consequences.

One of the new moves proclaimed by the Royal Council had been to open the Kingswood to hunters, in order to starve any approaching army, train the Goldcloaks and more importantly feed the overcrowded city .It was not enough. The city, which received daily hundred of refugees, starved. There was too many people, and too little food. With the Rose Road closed , the Riverlands in the other side of the war , and enemy warships patrolling Blackwater Bay (although the threat had diminished with the battle of Storm's End ) , King's Landing could only count on the Southern Crownlands resources(mainly Stokeworth and Rosby ) , which were slim . Hunger gave birth to despair and anger, and the departure of Princess Myrcella Baratheon to Sunspear gave the common people an occasion to gather.

While the _King Robert_ , pride of the Royal Navy of Westeros, departed the harbour with the Princess aboard, the situation degenerated on the way back to the Red Keep. Near Aegon's High Hill, a woman walked out of the crowd with a dead baby in her arms and blocked the royal party. Joffrey I Baratheon being naturally himself, disaster was unavoidable. Someone launched dung at the head of the king, and things got out of control. The king demanded the head of the culprit to Sandor 'the Hound ' Clegane, but in so large a crowd, it was a lost cause. Not that the common people were going to let Clegane kill the unknown thrower. Curses, new launch of dung came in the way of the Royal Party, further inflaming the tension in both sides. Suddenly, the mass of poor citizens advanced, pressing the horses of the men and women mounted in a smaller and smaller space. Violence broke out, as the Kingsguard, the Goldcloaks and the Lannisters guards used their swords to fight their way out.

The street fighting, while lasting less than a quarter of an hour, was a scenario that had nothing to envy to the Riverlands skirmishes happening at the same time. Ten Goldcloaks died , and another thirty-six were wounded .Five Lannisters guards perished in the defence of their House .Ser Aron Santagar , the Red Keep's master of Arms , had been beaten to death by no less than twenty people . Ser Preston Greenfield of the Kingsguard had his skull crushed by rioters before being cut in multiple parts (his arm and legs were never found). Lollys Stokeworth was the victim of a general rape .Tyrek Lannister, Tygett Lannister's only son, disappeared that day in the confusion, and was never seen again. The High Septon's body (and his Diadem Crown) were in such a state the body was only recognised due to his corpulence .It was only by the actions of Sandor Clegane that Sansa Stark was not killed in the riot.

In punishment for the outburst of violence, no one save the City's Guard was authorised anymore to go out at night in the city, with death being the sentence if caught. Travel, even by day, became severely limited. As the Hand of the King was in charge of the repression, a good part of the unpopularity fell back upon the shoulders of Tyrion Lannister. Not troubled in the least, the Imp took measures that would cause endless headaches in the future. A delegation from the North, leaded by Ser Donnel Locke had arrived to negotiate the release of prisoners. In hindsight, the "talk" between Tyrion Lannister and Donnel Locke reflected the disastrous situation of the Westerlands: the Northern knight was able to propose the freedom of a hundred Western knights for the release of each daughter of the defunct Eddard Stark plus his Valyrian sword Ice. Ser Jaime Lannister was not even included in the bargain . Tyrion Lannister refused the offer and sent back a counter-offer to Riverrun with two hundred Lannister guards to secure the North allegiance, although it was only a plot to secure the release of his brother. An emissary of the Night's Watch appearing before the throne in the person of Ser Alliser Thorne, potential traitors were sent to the Wall. And when news of King Renly's death reached King's Landing, the Hand of the King didn't hesitate to send Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish to Highgarden to wed the king to Margaery Tyrell, despite the fact that the chances of alliances were slim at best: Stannis had too many hostages of the Reach in his possession.

In very little time, the Imp had consolidated his power in the capital by ruse and force of arms. This influence was going to be tested by fire. After having secured the allegiance of Bronzegate and the rest of the Stormlords, King Stannis Baratheon had put his army in movement. The champion of R'llhor was coming to take the throne by steel and fire. Without an army, without food and without any intelligence of the major troop movements, Tyrion Lannister was left alone to defend the capital. One of the biggest battle Westeros had ever seen was about to begin...


	12. The Wolves sack Harrenhal

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. All the missing things are GRRM's, not mine.

Revan3363: The battle will be coming after this chapter, and will be in three parts.

Master of Dragons God: Yes, things are going to be very hot.

Truth is What you make of It: I tried to fix the punctuation for this chapter.

Matt Quinn: Well, Tyrion had no chance at his birth, and it continued all his life.

 **The Wolves sack Harrenhal**

 **The Battle for the Riverlands Part V**

Harrenhal. By a large margin, the largest fortress ever built in the Seven Kingdoms. A monument glorifying the folly of Harren the Black of House Hoare. Built in the blood of more than forty thousand men, the titanic citadel and its five gargantuan towers could have welcomed half a million men. Could, because in reality, very few people lived there anymore. Since Aegon the Conqueror had burned the master of the place and his whole line alive, all the Houses having had the temerity to take the Harrenhal lordship tragically became extinct one after the other. When King Robert I was crowned, ownership of the monstrous fortress passed to Lady Shella Whent. By that point, the castle was almost abandoned, as House Whent had been brought nearly to extinction in Robert's Rebellion. Only two towers were still occupied, and the majority of the inhabitants resided only in the lower levels. The 'Curse of Harren', as it was called, was acknowledged as a well-known fact in Westeros. Fifteen years later, the situation hadn't improved when in 298AC began the Eight King's War. Almost immediately, the Riverlands were invaded by the Lannister armies, and Lady Whent, having only the manpower of a Knightly House, was forced to surrender her home to Lord Tywin Lannister. After the battles of the Whispering Wood, the Second Battle of Riverrun and the Battle of the Green Fork, the ruins of Harrenhal became the camp for the last Westerlands army left in the field. Lady Whent, who had been imprisoned in her own castle, died of unknown causes (but the actions of certain sellswords in service of Lord Tywin were the most reasonable explanation). Harrenhal was given to Lord Janos Slynt, the commander of the Goldcloaks, before he himself was forced to take the Night's Watch. Slynt himself had never set foot in the castle.

As the Westerlands were raided and sacked by King Robb Stark and the combined cavalry of the Riverlands and the North, Lord Tywin Lannister finally left the dark security of the haunted place to march west. By that point Harrenhal was the only fortress in the Trident still under Lannister control, a fact that convinced the lord of Casterly Rock to leave a garrison. Ser Amory Lorch, a man who had particularly distinguished himself in raping and murdering the population of the Riverlands, was left in command, with approximately three hundred men. The reasoning of the Lannister lords were that these men , having given no mercy at all in their raids , were unlikely to surrender when the Riverlords would like nothing better to hang them at the first tree . As a result, Lorch took control of the three-hundred years old ruin. The garrison of 300 men could be divided in two parts: 150 men of various Lannister bannersmen that had been noted for their cruelty and sadistic ways; and 75 men of the Brave Companions, a rather untrustworthy sellsword company of Essos under the command of Vargo Hoat. The rest of the men stationed there were wounded, unable to travel across the Riverlands with the army.

Unknown to Ser Lorch, Vargo Hoat had decided to change sides in the conflict. With Lord Roose Bolton crossing the Ruby Ford and retaking Darry, there was little doubt that Harrenhal was next on the list. The sellsword commander called 'the Goat' by his companions negotiated his treason with the Dreadfort Lord. Feigning to raid in the vicinity of the Ruby Ford, Vargo Hoat met the Northern host and was given new orders. The 'official version' would be that the Brave Companions had fought a battle with Northmen, taking a large number of prisoners. In reality, these men had hidden weapons on them, and were ready at a moment's notice to strike at Lorch troops. Initially, the plan had been to wait for the darkness to fall, and then to liberate the prisoners in the middle of the night. Lorch and the Western soldiers loyal to him would be massacred when they slept, unable to defend themselves.

Planning this was long, not only because Vargo Hoat wanted several guarantees from Roose Bolton, but also because the area around the Trident was not really safe. In the last days, a series of skirmishes had started between the men of 'Black' Walder Frey and the Brotherhood without Banners of Beric Dondarrion. What exactly happened in this devastated area remained a mystery that baffled the Westerosi historians, and not only because they were so few men left to tell the story. According to the most reliable survivor (which happened to be a Piper deserter), the two brigands leaders fought a duel while most of their soldiers tore each other apart.'Black' Walder killed Dondarrion, but not quickly enough: his opponent, despite being stabbed in the stomach had time to ripost and decapitate the Frey knight (rumours that a Red Priest managed to revive Dondarrion after the fact are totally discarded by the Citadel to this day). Following this battle, the Brotherhood retreated towards the south, the Trident was finally secure and the conspiration could begin.

The first part of the plan was perfect: the Lannisters in charge of the gates left Hoat and his 'prisoners' entered the castle without thinking they had let their doom pass the doors. The second part was more an improvisation than anything else, due to the presence of Lady Arya Stark. The young girl, who had been captured by the group of Gregor Clegane, was serving incognito as a servant at the Wailing Tower .When the Northmen prisoners arrived, the ten year old girl knew that her hour had come. With a few survivors of the Mountain's raids, including Gendry Waters, one of Robert Baratheon's non-recognised bastards, Arya Stark poisoned the eight men that guarded the cells. The Northern soldiers were left free ... but Vargo had planned to begin the battle one hour later, forcing him to act in a hurry. Fortunately for the plan (or what was left of it), the men of Amory Lorch were quite busy whoring and absorbing large quantities of alcohol at this time of the evening. In the large hall, a general slaughter took place, neither the Brave Companions nor the Northern 'prisoners' feeling quite merciful. In a few minutes, the Lannister garrison was massacred without having had the chance to fight.

Ser Amory Lorch, who had emerged from his quarters half-naked, realised all was lost and tried to escape, leaving his men to their sad fate. In a good day, maybe this cowardly attempt would have been a success. As it was, Lorch had not managed to get out of Harrenhal that the Northern vanguard was here. Lorch hesitated, but made the bet that retreating inside Harrenhal was infinitely preferable to fall in the hands of the Northern lords. Only mere instants later to be forced to reconsider. Ser Vargo Hoat, eager to prove his newfound loyalty, threw Lorch in the pit where slept a massive bear. The animal, furious to have been woken by the noise, didn't offer any quarter. Amory Lorch, killer and murderer, was ripped apart and eaten by the bear in fury, which many noted as a particular appropriate end for a man like him. In the end, there was no formal surrender to end the battle. Less than five Western soldiers managed to survive the slaughter, and those who did were mostly wounded and had been as a result forgotten in the assault. Lord Roose Bolton took possession of Harrenhal in the short term, and Ser Wylis Manderly recovered Lady Arya Stark, who was rumoured to have killed half a dozen men in the action. Of course, this did nothing to boost the reputation of the Lannisters, as the ten year old girl was supposed to be kept hostage in King's Landing. But by then, Tyrion Lannister had bigger problems to deal with...


	13. Praise the Seven and Pass the Wildfire

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. Dealing with angry fans is not my idea of fun.

Revan3363: Thanks!

Master of Dragons God: Yes Arya is found, and it is going to change a lot of things...

Paul (Guest): this story is lighter than canon for the moment, but it is not going to stay that way. As time flows, really horrible events are going to happen, with the return of magic and the Others emerging from the ice desolations.

The Freys will make some apparitions, but consider with this type of format the historians don't know there has been a point of divergence in this story. So the Freys being loyal and important bannersmen of the Tullys is not a thing historians are really pressed to report.

And now, here we go for the great battle between the Lannisters and the Baratheons...

 **Praise the Seven and Pass the Wildfire**

 **The Battle of King's Landing Part I**

 _"It's a trap!"_ High Captain Imry Florent, Battle of King's Landing 299AC.

 _"Do you hear them scream, Stannis?"_ Tyrion Lannister, Battle of King's Landing, 299AC.

Given the relatively small distance between Storm's End and King's Landing, there was no real possibility of stopping Stannis Baratheon forces in their march to besiege the capital. It didn't stop Tyrion Lannister to try. Shortly after the death of Ser Cortnay Penrose, the Imp of Casterly Rock unleashed the remaining mountain clansmen that were left in the capital (roughly 150 men in total). These warriors, who would have been more than a hindrance than a help in a siege, were given the order to raid the Stormlords through the Kingswood, a task they entertained with martial devotion. But there hadn't been any serious prospect of stopping such a large army. After Storm's End surrender, King Stannis had roughly 35 000 men under his command. 6 000 were of the Narrow Sea Houses, 20 000 came from the Stormlands cavalry formerly sworn to Renly, and approximately 9 000 men were the infantry Erren Florent had managed to rally at Bitterbridge. Not that was the full extent of the Baratheon army. There were also the naval forces , which included half of the Royal fleet and the various warships of several sea lords , as well as several Essossi sellsails and pirates , giving a grand total of 214 ships in one single fleet (although certain were converted merchants ) .

To face this sea of swords and spears, Tyrion Lannister had barely 8 000 men. The core of the defenders were of course the Goldcloaks, numbering 6 000 men, supported by an elite force of 300 knights and squires. The rest were soldiers of various Crownlands Houses, sellswords and common infantrymen, generally thought to be unreliable at the best of times. There was also the rest of the Royal Fleet, 50 warships, even if most of the warships were undermanned and poorly experienced. The two most powerful warships were in Dorne, and most of the skilled captains were sworn to Stannis Baratheon: for the last decade, most of the ships stationed at Robert's court had been occupied to justify their reputation of drunkards. The forces defending the capital were hideously outnumbered, the only saving grace being that Stannis's army had to wait for his navy to arrive as it was impossible to cross the Blackwater Rush otherwise. The Stormlands forces profited from this delay by creating hundreds of rafts and thousands of arrows, as well as siege engines. Tyrion Lannister in the mean time reorganised the Kingsguard. While escorting Prince Tommen Baratheon to Rosby , Ser Boros Blount had made his cowardice known to the rest of Westeros(in an ambush that had been engineered by the Imp himself ) , and was as a result dismissed from the Royal guard .Ser Osmund Kettleblack replaced him , and Ser Balon Swann took the place of the deceased Preston Greenfield . The waits for both sides arrived at its end when the first sails of the Dragonstone fleet were seen sailing in the Blackwater Bay. Slowed down by contrary winds, the High Captain Imry Florent had arrived with the flagship Fury, signalling the imminent beginning of the battle.

Why this knight of the Florent found himself in command of one of Westeros most powerful fleet was a political issue. While House Florent had burned the bridges with their Tyrells overlords, many Reach bannersmen had rallied Stannis's cause in a less spectacular (and less treasonous as well) manner. By elevating Lord Alester Florent as Hand of the King, Ser Guyard 'the Green' Morrigen as commander of the vanguard and Ser Erren Florent as commander of the infantry, King Stannis had ensured the temporary loyalty of his troops. Their competence, however, was a completely different subject, especially in the case of Ser Imry Florent. The new High Captain, not discouraged by the loss of a dozen ships to bad weather, refused to listen the calls of prudence of the most experimented captains, including Ser Davos Seaworth, Lord Salladhor Saan and Lord Monford Velaryon. Convinced he had a massive advantage in naval power , the Florent commander relegated Lord Saan and Ser Seaworth to the rear guard , charging them of the (in his eyes anyway ) ungrateful task of transporting the infantry to assault the Iron and Dragon gates.

Seeing the entirety of the Royal fleet loyal to the Lannisters in the Blackwater Rush , Imry Florent took the bait , hook , line and sinker , throwing his entire fleet(minus the rearguard ) , a grand total of 175 ships , straight into the Rush to fight the enemy warships . In an instant, the High Captain had time to realise three critical things. First, the Blackwater Rush was too small to allow his entire fleet to manoeuvre in fighting conditions. Quite a few warships entered in collision with their allies before even the first arrow had been shot. Secondly, Tyrion 'the Imp' Lannister had never intended his own fleet to survive, stocking enormous quantities of wildfire in everything that could float. And third, an ugly and monstrous chain rose from the polluted waters of the Blackwater, cutting all the main force of the Baratheon fleet from the possibility of escape. Ser Imry Florent had just the time to exclaim his infamous "It's a trap!". And then the wildfire started to explode. Not one, not two, not in dozens of explosions; there were at once hundreds of green explosions and flames bursting from the condemned warships. In a single moment that reminded the Field of Fire three hundred years ago, the Blackwater Rush itself was boiling, the wildfire being an alchemist product that burned even on water. Minutes after minutes, all the wildfire that had been disposed on the Blackwater burned. Spreading downstream, the unnatural fire destroyed both fleets, making no distinction between its creators and their enemies. Hundreds of men screamed in agony when the substance burned them to death. Even the soldiers throwing themselves into the water found no salvation. It was then the huge chain truly revealed its purpose. By trying to evade the wildfire, the ruins of Stannis's fleet had been carried directly between the two towers at the mouth of the river that mounted the chain. For many sailors, this massive construction of steel was the last thing they ever saw. The initial plan of Tyrion Lannister had been a devastating success. The fleet of Dragonstone had been wiped out in its majority, extinguishing the majority of the Baratheon's naval power.

Despite the wildfire, warships had managed to survive in this inferno. Nine ships had managed to land their complement of soldiers on the northern bank, directly threatening the capital. Eighteen Myrish galleys landed their men in the southern bank. The rearguard of Ser Davos Seaworth, including most of the Lyseni warships, was intact and had not entered the river, perhaps the wisest decision under these circumstances. The amount of wrecks formed by the destroyed warships also created an unstable bridge for Stannis army to cross. The wildfire had taken its toll but it had not been enough to stop the assault. On the southern bank, Stannis unsheathed Lightbringer and pointed it at Kings Landing's walls. Expulsing all air from their lungs, the army of the Stag shouted a monumental war cry and charged in direction of the capital's defences. The Battle of King's Landing had only just begun...


	14. This Dwarf, Our Hero

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. Even for me, taking six years to write a book is much too long.

Master of Dragons God: This is what we can qualify as an Ackbar comment, also known as the moment you realize your admiral is an utter moron.

lilnudger82: Yes, the Freys are known are one of the most powerful Houses (militarily speaking) of the Riverlands. But despite the Freys being sworn to the Tullys, it didn't stop Walder to insult Hoster every time he wanted in canon. So one might say, Edmure's comments are not that inflammatory compared to what the former Lord of the Twins said at one moment or another in his life.

Paul: No problem, although if you want more explanations, feel free to PM me(I don't want to spoil anything by a review comment). The next chapter which will see the triumphant return of the Ironborn will be chapter 17, once all the repercussions of the Battle of King's Landing have been written. I can say Stevron's fate is going to be very different from canon, as he will survive the first part of the war. Jeyne will not marry Robb. I am uncertain if I will make her appear in this story, but the fact didn't storm the Crag but chose another of his senior commanders to lead the assault derailed things considerably.

As for the Battle of the Blackwater, no it's not going to follow the same schedule as canon. Not only both sides are going to make different decisions in the battlefield, but the rapport of strength has also changed from the books. For the rest, you will have to read the chapter below...

 **This Dwarf, Our hero**

 **The Battle of King's Landing Part II**

 _"I am a dwarf. You are cowards. Who will follow me to save the capital?"_ Tyrion Lannister, Battle of King's Landing, 299AC.

 _"I am the King! I am the King! I am ... no Mother, no I"_ last words of Joffrey I Baratheon, 299AC.

For obvious reasons, the main assault on King's Landing was launched towards the Southern walls and the River Gate (also named Mud Gate). It was the shortest way to cross the Blackwater Rush , and it guaranteed the attackers would have to spend less time under the fire of the defenders (very literally in this case ) . It was also, quite predictably, where the core of King's Landing garrison was waiting. King Joffrey Baratheon, Tyrion Lannister, Lord Jacelyn Bywater and the five members of the Kingsguard in the capital were there, ready to repulse the assault. In the first minutes of the battle, it was quite an easy feat, the Baratheon men coming ashore had been too few and only too happy to have escaped the wildfire to fight effectively. Surprised to be alive, the surviving sailors surrendered without resisting, only too happy to be alive .The charges of Sandor Clegane and Ser Balon Swann destroyed most of the first forces coming ashore. But as the battle continued, the task was more and more difficult. The two Kingsguards had been given two hundred mounted men each in the morning, and now these troops were tired, outnumbered, and had to fight fresh men in a ground that was burning with wildfire. The casualties suffered were heavy and not sustainable: no reinforcement came to compensate the losses. Ser Balon Swann had to sound the retreat to the River Gate, leaving the ground in front of the walls defenceless. Sandor Clegane refused to go out there once more, his fear of wildfire by now having overwhelmed his reason. And the Southern army received hundreds of reinforcements as the time passed, while the forces of King's Landing were already stretched to the limit.

Profiting from the apparent defeat of the Kingsguard sallies; the Baratheon forces brought their rams to force the gates. While the catapults of King's Landing nicknamed the 'Three Whores" destroyed many, two managed to reach the Iron Gate and the River Gate. The Iron Gate Goldcloaks managed to drive out the sellswords handling the ram by throwing wildfire at them, but the River Gate defenders had finally reached the bottom of their reserves. With a murderous rage, the soldiers of Stannis pushed their instrument of destruction against the gate. The sounds heard convinced the defenders the gate would not last long. Realising the fate of the city was in the balance, the Hand of the King himself, Tyrion Lannister, ordered the charge. The next sortie was led by the Lannister dwarf himself, and it was a slaughter. The Imp had never been recognised as a dangerous warrior but the only sally he led changed totally this impression. Laughing and screaming, Tyrion Lannister handled a large axe, leaving a path of devastation on his wake. The attackers of the River Gate were decimated. The men that had come ashore by raft or the wrecks of the warships faced a warrior that had been transfigured into a god of war. The Hand of the King killed dozens of knights, and his courage (and insanity) rallied the Goldcloaks and the Kingsguard. Ser Mandon Moore and Ser Balon Swann were at the Lannister's side, justifying their reputation as elite swordsmen .The battle continued but there was no hope for the defenders of King's Landing to triumph. Despite acts worthy of heroes, Tyrion Lannister, his squire Podrick Payne and the two Kingsguards were forced to withdraw to the River Gate, as entire waves of enemies debarked and Stannis Baratheon launched new soldiers on the field of battle .Of the two hundred and forty men that went with Tyrion Lannister in his suicidal and epic charge, more than two-thirds had been left behind, dead or prisoners. The riverbank was abandoned to the enemy, and new siege engines arrived to breach and overwhelm the walls.

Inside the city, it was pure chaos. In an act that was as stupid as it was useless, the Queen-Regent had ordered the King to be brought to the Red Keep; under the motive the situation was too dangerous. Seeing their sovereign withdraw, the already worthless and inexperienced soldiers carrying the gold threw down their weapons and began to run in the other direction, killing the officers who tried to stop them. Lord Jacelyn Bywater died stabbed in the back by his own men, and the chaos was complete. In the middle of the disaster was Joffrey I Baratheon himself. Seeing his soldiers deserting, the cruel teenager chose to demonstrate his skill at arbalest shooting upon his own infantrymen. Needless to say, it enraged the deserters further, and any kind of royal authority Joffrey the First of his name could have had was lost. In spite of the protection of Ser Meryn Trant, Ser Osmund Kettleblack and half a dozen other Lannister guards, the fleeing Goldcloaks and the inhabitants of the River rows rushed to kill the king they hated so much. The two Kingsguards died killing ten enemies each, but they died ... and there were a hundred men and women to finish the job. Joffrey Baratheon the First of his name was ripped apart , his excellent armour proving less than useful when having so many persons trying to massacre him with knives and bare hands .The shouts "I am the King !" of King Joffrey didn't stop the crowd in the least . The body of Kings Landing's monarch was mutilated beyond recognition, and then the mass of soldiers and common people dispersed in the streets of the capital, trying to flee the consequences of their regicide and the incoming Baratheon soldiers.

In the mean time, Tyrion Lannister had managed to rally the last defenders for a last stand at the River Gate, but his cause was desperate. The Lannister's group was numbering less than a hundred men, and was outnumbered twenty to one by the men of the Burning Heart. Other rams had been brought at the King's Gate, the Iron Gate and the Dragon Gate, and while their progress was less impressive there, the gates would not last eternally. In a sinister moment, the River Gate broke apart under the blows, sending pieces of wood, metal and dust all over the place. In the breach that just been created came Ser Guyard "the Green" Morrigen followed by a thousand men of the Stormlands. Tyrion Lannister immediately defied in duel the former knight of the Rainbow Guard, threw a shield to the head of Morrigen and then decapitated him with his axe. This surreal scene stopped only the Baratheon soldiers for a moment , and soon bows and swords were pointed to kill the dwarf that had killed so many of their companions .

It was at this moment, according to the legend, where all was lost, that a trumpet was heard in the distance. Then another. A choir of instruments followed, stopping for a moment the carnage occurring, lifting the hopes of the defenders. From the Dragon's gate, the last men defending their positions saw thousands of infantry and cavalry in red and gold taking their positions. On the southern banks of the Blackwater, the Southern lords stopped sending troops across the river, as hundreds of men were now revealing themselves on their flanks. From the West, hundreds of Lion banners were now unveiled in defiance. The Lannister army had arrived.


	15. Kill or be killed

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. Even for me, taking six years to write a book is much too long.

Ruci: Why everyone hates Joffrey? Just kidding. As for morale, let's say Tyrion's force was only holding the gate. Should the attackers have been given one more hour the city was lost.

Master of Dragons God: Perfectly agree. This boy was worse than Aerys. But you know the rule of ASOIAF: nice guys die first...

Revan3363: It's Tywin, so he will do what he always does in such a case: blame Tyrion.

raw666: Not that much casualties in fact. They lost close to 250 men so far, which while more high than canon is still far less than some Houses of the Riverlands which saw their lands and their military strength close from annihilation. But yes, they will ask for some spoils when this is over.

Paul: True, three of the worst men of Westeros erased from the map. As for the battle, it follows...

 **Kill or be killed**

 **The Battle of King's Landing Part III**

 _"Time to make a tactical withdrawal."_ Lord Alester Florent, Battle of King's Landing, seeing the Lannister arrive.

 _"So die all traitors"_ King Stannis Baratheon, Battle of King's Landing, after killing Ser Kevan Lannister.

It should have been impossible. The army of Lord Tywin Lannister was supposed to be in the Riverlands, fighting the combined forces of the Riverlands and the North. It could have been in the Westerlands, riding to the rescue of their people attacked by King Robb Stark. But one place where they hadn't been expected to be in the last months of 299AC was King's Landing. Of course, the impossible had in fact been a combination of several politic and military actions. Approximately two months ago, Lord Petyr Baelish and his escort of Goldcloaks had left King's Landing to propose an alliance with House Tyrell. The intention of the Royal Council had been to wed Joffrey Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell, but it appeared the proposal died before it was examined: no member of the Highgarden family was present at Bitterbridge when the man everybody called "Littlefinger" and his party arrived. The impossibility of the wedding didn't keep other affairs to be discussed. Lord Randyll Tarly, left in command here, had been humiliated by the recent battle having taken place in the Reach camps. It was extremely easy for Baelish to rally him to the Lannister cause, an allegiance made even easier by the fact the Tyrells had not forbidden to bend the knee to King Joffrey. Immediately ravens were sent, not to King's Landing, but to Tywin Lannister in the Riverlands. To have the chance of attacking Stannis's forces by surprise, the capital could not be warned, ravens being too often intercepted. In terms of men, Tarly and his forces were only bringing 4000 warriors, but the major support came in term of food and supplies that the Lannister army, now deprived of any Westerlands or Riverlands base, desperately needed to fight another battle. With the barges left on the Mander, the combined Lannister-Reach army advanced east, and no enemy soldier had been the wiser.

The Stormlords and the Reach lords having chosen Stannis Baratheon, on the verge of triumph, had not expected any enemy reinforcements. Entirely turned towards the assault of the capital, the Baratheon soldiers had neglected their flanks, which had already been rendered completely blind due to the raids of the mountain clans serving Tyrion Lannister. When the Lannister cavalry charged , the army following King Stannis had been at its most vulnerable point : a quarter of the men forming Stannis's forces had crossed or were on the point of crossing the Blackwater , and other had already broken formation to make the crossing easier . Still, victory was far from assured for the Lannister side. Except the few defenders led by Tyrion Lannister and the Red Keep's garrison, King's Landing defenders were no longer a coherent force. Most of the capital was the scene of riots. King Joffrey Baratheon was dead. No help could come from the Kingslanders .Lord Tywin Lannister was far from beaten after his retreat at the battle of the Fords, having nearly nineteen thousand men under his personal command left, but even with the four thousand men of the Reach under Randyll Tarly the Lannisters had only parity in numbers against the Stormlords. As a result, the lord of Casterly Rock decided to lead himself half the army on the north bank, while Lord Tarly would command the rest on the south bank with Ser Kevan Lannister as his second.

The initial Lannister southern charge was carnage for the disorganised Stomlanders, who received the full fury of the Western and Southern cavalry. Unfortunately, it was not enough. For every man who fell in the first lines, King Stannis reformed his ranks behind, and the elder Baratheon was a very skilled leader of men, at least concerning battlefield tactics. The second Lannister charge on the southern bank faced a wall of pikes and a cavalry counterattack. Surprise was definitely over, and Tarly's men fought Stormlands and Reach soldiers who had not been part of the earlier fighting. Hundreds of men died on each side, but it gave time for the rest of the Stormlands soldiers to disengage from the capital's siege. Ser Jon Fossoway, Lord Bryce Caron and many others died for Stannis, while Harys Swyft and Burton Crakehall fell in the Lannisters service. On the northern bank, things were looking far more desperate for the men following R'hllor. Lord Addam Marbrand had annihilated the forces trying to reach the River Gate. The soldiers who were trying to enter the city were repulsed at the price of heavy casualties. Ser Mandon Moore died and Tyrion Lannister was wounded (he had to carried off the battlefield by his squire) but the defenders held the ruins of the gate preventing the invaders from entering the city. Caught between the Lions and the river, most of the Reach and Stormlands men having debarked there were utterly broken, with their only choice being to swim across the Blackwater or lay down their weapons. At the Iron Gate, Ser Davos Seaworth had the intelligence and the means to organise the retreat to the ships but he and Salladhor Saan had not the naval capacity to evacuate everybody from the imminent disaster. Several Florent knights, including Ser Axell Florent, made things worse by knocking aside those who got in their way to their salvation.

On the other side of the river, the Westerlands soldiers had no longer the advantage. Randyll Tarly had let the effect of surprise go away and had paid for it. Lord Lewys Lydden and Lord Leo Lefford had been killed on the side of the Western lords, while Lord Tarly had killed himself Ser Erren Florent and Lord Chyttering. The numbers were no longer in favour of the Reach and the Westerlands, the attackers having suffered hundreds of casualties forcing the pike formations. The Stormlands cavalry had regrouped at the price of heavy losses, and Tarly's cavalry had lost a quarter of its men trying to exploit this temporary weakness. The infantry of both sides was fighting a terrible struggle with their enemy counterparts, one where fury and blood reigned. In carnage like this, the issue could be decided by a single strike. Ser Kevan Lannister , Tywin's only surviving brother, realised this and decided that if his troops managed to break the Stag lines a brief instant, enough to reach King Stannis and defy the master of Dragonstone in duel , the battle could still be won. If successful, this action could have broken decisively the Baratheon lines, but it was not to be. Stannis Baratheon was not Robert Baratheon's equal in a fight (few were), but he didn't need to be. Unlike his opponent he had not participated personally in the battle, and in a battlefield duel it made all the difference. The confrontation was terrible, merciless, and rapid. At no moment the issue was in any doubt. King Stannis slew Kevan Lannister and decapitated him with Lightbringer. This was enough for the Lannister troops , which had just seen their numbers divided by two and lost their captain in the same hour .Breaching the Baratheon lines had cost more than two thousand dead and countless wounded . The soldiers of Storm's End had regained hope and were pushing back their opponents westwards. With an army close to its breaking point, Randyll Tarly was forced to order a general retreat following the death of Ser Kevan. Several of his senior lieutenants like Jon Bettley were agonizing and it was evident the men he commanded had no strength left , the forced march plus the long battle were over their human forces .

While the south was more or less a Stannis's victory, the north was an outright disaster for the Stormlords. The men that had once crossed triumphant the Blackwater were now running for their lives, pursued by Tywin's euphoric army. Numerous Myrish galleys tried to save the doomed force, but the wildfire was still there, and many of the last warships sailing the Rush suffered a horrible fate attempting the rescue. Ser Ronnet Connington and Herbert Bolling died in the inferno, and Lord Celtigar was captured. The warships were now under archers and catapult's fire .One by one, the sailors stopped the evacuation, left and never came back. Hundreds of men at arms, realising there was no hope, threw down their weapons and surrendered to the Lannisters. Between 1400 and 1700 men were captured, a majority of them being Reach bannersmen that had changed sides at Storm's End.

On the two sides of the river the battle was almost over. Gathering the survivors of his army, King Stannis ordered his troops to withdraw in turn. With Lord Tarly and the rest of the Lannisters army in the vicinity, it was clear attacking the capital with any chance of success was simply not feasible. The men of the Stag and the Burning Heart had lost too many men, and anyway with the fleet destroyed crossing again would be an extremely perilous proposition. The entire force, approximately 10 000 men, retreated through the Kingswood, defeated but not destroyed. The battle of King's Landing, the first major battle opposing the Baratheons and the Lannisters, was over. King's Landing had not fallen, and Tywin Lannister proclaimed his victory in the middle of his celebrating troops. However, with King's Landing in chaos behind them, there were a non-negligible percentage of Western lords and knights who wondered if the victory was really worth it...


	16. A Throne of Corpses

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. All the things described in the books belong to GRRM, not me.

bankerjoe13: Each time a fanfic author kills Joffrey in a gruesome manner, there are rarely complaints (grin). And I fully agree his death was not enough satisfying in canon compared to the damage he caused.

Master of Dragons God: Well, Tywin also knows by now that if one falls in this war, the other title will fall very quickly.

raw666: Ah, okay. On the other hand, the Freys have a big family, and the war is far from over. Other Riverlands Houses will take casualties in the future.

Paul: True, the Lannisters won like in canon. However, in this story Stannis remains a real threat as he managed to save a solid core of veterans from the disaster. Unlike in canon, the Battle that has just ended will be far from the end.

 **A Throne of Corpses**

 **Aftermath of King's Landing Battle Part I**

 _"At the end of the day, the only victors were the crows"_ Tyrion Lannister, commenting upon the battle of King's Landing, 300AC.

 _"Joffrey was a monster but no, I didn't kill him. You did. "_ Tyrion Lannister to Cersei Lannister, 300 AC.

In terms of victory, the battle of King's Landing could be summed up as "devastating" for both sides. The only winners claimed Tyrion Lannister when he appeared in public again, were the crows nourishing themselves from the battlefield's corpses. And in the middle of this chaos was Lord Tywin Lannister. If the lord of Casterly Rock expected scenes of joy and celebration entering the capital, the welcome fell short of his expectations. The streets were full of Goldcloaks and common people trying to loot the homes of the inhabitants .Wildfire burnt. Any order had disappeared. And while the three hills seemed calm, the Muddy way, the River rows and Flea Bottom were the scenes of heavy fighting. Many apologists of the Lannisters affirmed that in these consequences, the decisions taken by Lord Tywin were the only means to restore public order. Others pointed out the Lions were not known for their mercy: the tale of the Reynes and the Tarbecks was a sinister remainder for the men and women who had the temerity to defy the Lions. Both Houses had been extinguished to the last member. Angered by the death of his brother and his grandson, the Lord Paramount of the Westerlands ordered his troops to enter the city and kill anybody in the streets who carried a weapon. In hindsight, not giving any precision what "a weapon "was a horrible mistake. The Western troops of the northern bank (the majority of Lord Tarly men were on the other side of the river) entered into the city and sacked it for the second time in twenty years. The damage done was not to the extent of the first sack, but anywhere in the city where people resisted (even if sometimes it was against renegade Goldcloaks) was thoroughly and ruthlessly crushed.

When the sun rose the morning after, the calm had finally returned to King's Landing, and the gates of the Red Keep opened to let pass a flamboyant Ser Lancel Lannister and a party of knights. But if the city was silent, it was the calm of a grave. While Lannister troops refused to call it "sack" or "massacre" afterwards, the evidence was damning. According to the historians and maesters best estimates, between 20 000 and 25 000 inhabitants of the capital lost their lives in this vicious purge done by the Lannister troops. The common population hated Lord Tywin Lannister before the battle; now those that were still alive utterly loathed him. The soldiers of the Reach and the Westerlands who paraded through the city were completely ill-at-ease, realising any hope of governing the Seven Kingdoms would be by strength and terror. Still, Stannis Baratheon having retreated from the battlefield (albeit in good order), Lord Tywin Lannister and the Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister were prompt to claim the victory in what was so far the biggest battle of the war. Seeing the Blackwater rush and its shores covered by corpses, the Essossi observers present made another assessment: far from being a decisive victory, all the battle of King's Landing had managed to do was killing a lot of men and women, ruining the capital and erasing Westeros from the list of the naval powers. It had also the distinction of causing the second royal death of the conflict. With the death of Joffrey Baratheon in the streets of King's Landing, his younger brother Tommen was now King of Westeros, becoming King Tommen, the First of his name, King of Westeros, the Andals and a few other prestigious titles. As the former Prince had been kept at Rosby, seven days passed before Tommen I was crowned, which gave some time for the men in charge to erase the damage of the battle. The ceremony was remembered as a quick and cheap affair, with very few important lords present (apart from those having participated at the battle). Of the 2700 prisoners having been made, approximately 1700 chose to bend the knee to the new monarch, primarily men who had previously served the Reach, King Renly and King Stannis. The others, with the exception of certain notable knights, were executed shortly after the ceremony.

In itself, the situation at the capital was better than before. While Lord Petyr Baelish had been unable to negotiate with Lord Mace Tyrell directly, he had brought Lord Randyll Tarly on the Baratheon-Lannister side, and as a consequence partially opened the Rose Road for the food convoys. King's Landing was no longer in any danger of starvation (there were also fewer people to feed remarked some lords). On the other hand, the city was still surrounded by enemy forces. At the Trident, Crownlanders spies reported a massive concentration of Riverlands and Northern soldiers, who could march south at any moment. The remnants of Stannis Baratheon navy under Ser Davos Seaworth were still blockading Blackwater Bay, and of course Stannis himself was reforming his army south of the Kingswood, waiting for an opportunity to strike back. The Lannister army, in spite of being quite a formidable force, was not able to meet all these threats .The problem was that reinforcements didn't exist. Mace Tyrell was willing to bend the knee to King Tommen ... if Margaery Tyrell was to be wed to the new King and Loras Tyrell was liberated from the dungeons he was currently prisoner. Seeing an opportunity, Lord Tywin Lannister began to plan for a new offensive in the South: killing the eldest of the Baratheons could solve quite a few strategic problems.

At the same time, the blame and the glory of the Battle of King's Landing were distributed among the surviving lords. Most witnesses who assisted the event remembered it as an exercise of hypocrisy, the Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister casting all the errors on her brother Tyrion Lannister, who was still unconscious and unable to defend his cause. Why the lord of Casterly Rock accepted this version of events was still unknown. Most of the warriors and knights having distinguished themselves in the carnage were given lands and titles, which for the most part were in enemy hands at the moment they were speaking: the majority of these knights would never see the castles promised. Lord Petyr Baelish was the main example in this case, as he was named Lord of Harrenhal and Lord Paramount of the Trident and the Riverlands. Given that the castle and the lands were in Stark and Tully hands, it was deemed very unlikely that "Littlefinger" would live to see the castle in his possession. The same was true of the men who were awarded lands in the Stormlands and the Dornish Marches, as the heirs of the deceased Stormlords and Marchers were not going to accept these Royal orders. In the Small Council, Grand Maester Pycelle was freed from the Red Keep dungeons where Tyrion Lannister had sent him and took his place again at the table. The alternative being Gormon Tyrell, the Lions chose to retain the old Grand Maester. Tywin Lannister became officially the Hand of the King, and Randyll Tarly was admitted too as Master of Laws. Lord Varys kept his post as Master of Whisperers, and Lord Petyr Baelish became Grand Emissary to Highgarden (the post of Lord Commander of the Kingsguard was left vacant due to the capture of Ser Jaime Lannister) .Lord Addam Marbrand was made Commander of the City Watch, a strictly honorific position considering the dreadful losses the Goldcloaks had taken during the siege. As expected, the most thankless job fell to Tyrion 'the Imp ' Lannister, who had just emerged from his quarters where he was healing his broken leg and the head trauma suffered by a blunted warhammer: he was named Master of Coin. Immediately, the new lord treasurer had the unpleasant duty to affirm to the Hand of the King that short of a divine intervention, the Kingdom's was bankrupt.

Normally, it shouldn't have been a surprise. The excesses of Robert Baratheon in tourneys, wines, travels and prostitutes had amounted to a debt of almost six million gold dragons in the Royal Treasury. Almost three million were debts to House Lannister, which could wait the end of the conflict, but there were also large sums borrowed to the Iron Bank of Braavos, the Faith of Seven, and House Tyrell. Already, an emissary from the Iron Bank had arrived at King's Landing, and the Lord Treasurer tried to delay the meeting as long as possible. With the mines of the Westerlands in ruins and ashes, House Lannister (and the Crown by the same occasion) was very close to financial annihilation. And it didn't stop there, because all the previous year, massive sums had to be raised for the current conflict. According to Tyrion Lannister's best estimates, the Crown as an institution on the first day of 300AC was in debt of a sum approaching eight millions dragons and a half. With interest. The Lord of Casterly Rock received this information, according to the Council members, like he acknowledged everything coming from his son's mouth; by ignoring most of it and pressing him to do his duty. The duty, in this case, was to marry Sansa Stark and giving birth to a pretender to the lordship of Winterfell. The list of insults against House Stark didn't stop there: Lord Tywin destroyed the ancestral Sword Ice, forging two other Valyrian swords from it that were intended for Tommen Baratheon and Jaime Lannister. As the Starks and the Lords of the Trident were far from beaten, the lords present at the capital were completely baffled by the audacity of the Lions; the act was going to have terrible consequences for the Westerlands.

More difficult to evade was the subject of the Kingsguard. With Ser Jaime Lannister in the Riverrun dungeons and Ser Arys Oakheart in Dorne, the only member of the Kingsguard left in King's Landing was Ser Balon Swann. Ser Meryn Trant, Ser Osmund Kettleblack and Ser Mandon Moore had died in the battle and no one had any idea where Sandor 'the Hound ' Clegane had gone. The decline suffered in glory and integrity in the last months made sure their replacements were worse. Ser Boros Blount was re-instated in spite of the multiple cowardice accusations he was accused of. Osney Kettleblack was knighted and replaced his dead brother. The other two places were occupied by Ser Edmund Ambrose and Ser Hugh Clifton.

Finally, having learnt that Stannis was regrouping his army at the intersection of the Wendwater and the Kingsroad, Lord Tywin Lannister led most of his force along with Lord Tarly men, almost 15 000 soldiers, south of the Blackwater, intending to put end an end to the Stormlands "rebellion" by killing Stannis Baratheon. The Lannister army outnumbered the Southern forces sworn to Stannis by a significant margin, especially in cavalry: the plan was to vanquish the forces of Storm's End in one decisive clash before turning their attention to Robb Stark with the forces of Highgarden as reinforcements. The rest of the forces, led by Lord Addam Marbrand, were charged to guard the capital against any attack. There were many assumptions in this plan that made it solely terribly risky: the nearest Reach army under Ser Garlan Tyrell was approaching Cider Hall now, in order to punish the Reach Houses which had rebelled. It could never hope to intervene in time against the Northern army; a quick advance from the army stationed near Harrenhal could besiege King's Landing before Tywin's return. More importantly, it assumed King Stannis had the intention of fighting a conventional battle. The following events would show the futility of this assumption...


	17. The Stags regroup, the Fox falls

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. All the characters appearing in the books belong to GRRM, not me.

Revan3363: Thanks!

Master of Dragons God: No, Tywin is not stupid, just really arrogant. He's also a man who is quite lacking in manpower these days, and must force his opponents to come to him. Enraging them is a good way to do it.

melubarv: Theon is still alive; he's currently an "honoured guest" under guard at Riverrun. Some lords asked for his head, but Robb dissuaded them, as executing a man who most Ironborn don't care about is not really useful.

As for the Iron Bank, they will make their apparition later in the story.

raw666: For better or for worse, Tywin really believes he can still win this war. He has the informal support of House Tyrell, and he has just beaten (although not decisively) Stannis. Compared to canon, it's true his campaign so far is less exalting. On the other hand, Tywin doesn't know that. He also desperately need the Starks to stop ravaging the Westerlands and come to him where he can massacre them. Therefore his apparently stupid actions, which have the benefit to also give him two Valyrian swords, a type of object he always wanted to have.

Paul: Tommen is indeed the Sixth King. Don't worry, the Seventh King is also going to arrive soon. So far, I have already written 38 chapters (that are published on alternatehistory once per week). I'm planning for 50, but it is only an estimate. There may be more, everything is not fixed in the marble.

 **The Stags regroup, the Fox falls**

 **Aftermath of King's Landing battle Part 2**

 _"Your Grace, I am innocent! Of everything! "_ Lord Alester "the Poor Liar" Florent, 300 AC.

 _"Ser Cortnay was right. This man truly changes sides like he changes boots."_ Ser Mark Mullendore, upon Lord Florent's trial, 300 AC.

Defeated but not broken, the army of Stannis Baratheon retreated through the Kingswood after the battle of King's Landing. Although retreat was perhaps not the term, because there was little to no pursuit behind them. Randyll Tarly had lost too many men, and Lord Tywin Lannister was on the wrong side of the river to do anything to oppose the move. As a consequence, the Stormlords and the other troops following King Stannis had the time to save all their possessions, weapons and war supplies from the Backwater camp. From there, the only important to question was where the army was marching.

Several knights and captains proposed to stop at the intersection of the Kingsroad and the Roseroad. By staying there, it was thought, the capital could still be threatened without taking huge risks. King Stannis was not of this opinion, however. For the eldest Baratheon alive, the chances of starving the capital by sitting at the crossroads were slim to none, especially as the Lannister army was superior in numbers. The Kingswood, having suffered serious fire damage before the battle of King's Landing, was not a place anymore that allowed executing a vast ambush. The retreat southwards continued, until the Wendwater Bridge where a rear-guard was left to defend what was the most direct access to the Stormlands. The rest of the cavalry and infantry finally stopped at Bronzegate, where the men were finally authorised to erect a large camp and let down their swords.

Now that the time of withdrawal was over, it was time to count the losses, which were simply horrendous. Before the battle, the combined Reach-Stormlands army had gathered 35 000 warriors on land and 214 warships on the seas. Now, there were roughly 10 400 men at Bronzegate. Of course, Ser Davos Seaworth had managed to save nearly 4 000 men of said army and 44 warships (the majority of them being Lyseni), and these troops were important in guarding Driftmark and Dragonstone. But it also meant few of them could be sent to the South to reinforce Stannis's main force in the Stormlands. Keeping the Gullet closed was vital to avoid the naval trade resuming in Blackwater Bay .Added to that, the sealift capacity for so many soldiers was sorely lacking: what had been done at King's Landing in emergency was not done advised for longer travels.

Given the magnitude of the disaster, it was obvious heads were going to roll. On a pure tactical view, the battle of King's Landing had been a succession of disasters where Tyrion Lannister's strategic madness was only one of the factors to blame. Fortunately for King Stannis and his Stormlords, it was not difficult to find the persons at the heart of the defeat. The action, in some aspect, was made even easier by the tendency of the guilty fox to attempt to change sides once again.

House Florent. For their betrayal of House Tyrell, King Stannis had named Ser Erren Florent commander of the infantry and Ser Imry Florent High Captain of the fleet .Now it appeared as a mistake of lordly proportions. In the battle, both men found a spectacular end, one in a lake of wildfire the other by going duel Lord Randyll Tarly personally. There was no doubt that the stupidity of both men had cost hundreds of lives. Other captains like Ser Guyard Morrigen (also dead at the hands of Tyrion Lannister) could also share the blame. But unlike most of those dead knights and lords, too many of the Florent knights and men of arms had survived, for reasons which were quite limpid when the survivors at Dragonstone and Bronzegate soon began to tell their stories. Apparently, if Lord Alester Florent and Ser Axell Florent were among the warriors having managed to take refuge on the surviving ships, it was by sole virtue of having pushed overboard the sailors and common soldiers trying to get in their way. As the rumours were growing more disgusting day by day, summons were sent to Davos Seaworth to bring back the lord of Brightwater Keep and his brother (plus a few knights) to the army's camp. Lord Alester Florent was stripped on the spot of the Hand of the King's office and his brother Axell suffered the same fate concerning his self-proclaimed title of Dragonstone Castellan; Ser Davos Seaworth replacing him on the spot in the later position .The star of House Florent had utterly fallen apart when the disgraced lord with prominent ears and his family arrived before the king.

But the accusations of cowardice, idiocy and imbecility in strategic matters were not the worst accusations the Florent family had to answer anymore. High treason had replaced them. Presented by Melisandre of Asshai herself, King Stannis read in front of his most loyal bannersmen a letter written by Lord Florent to Tywin Lannister himself. In it, Alester Florent had proposed to deliver Dragonstone, Driftmark, Princess Shireen Baratheon, the surviving Baratheon fleet and even the army's war plans in exchange to retain his lands and his keep after the war was over. Many in the assembly present smiled; the lord of Brightwater Keep had just signed his death warrant. The sovereign's reaction didn't wait: all the Florents present, who had believed themselves above their king's wrath, discovered themselves on the bad side of an angry Baratheon. All the accused foxes were thrown in jail, awaiting their trial for treason. All their lands were confiscated (not it mattered, as the Tyrells were already on a rampage in the Reach) and their monetary possessions seized. The only member of House Florent to escape the cleaning was Queen Selyse (and some whispered that had been a near thing). As for the Florent's replacements, Ser Donnel Swann was named commander of the infantry (7 000 men) and Ser Rolland Storm took command of the Wendwater vanguard (400 bowmen). Ser Brus Buckler was charged to reorganise the cavalry (3000 men) and Ser Davos Seaworth was elevated to High Captain of the fleet (what was left of it anyway). Lord Elmon Estermont was named Hand of the King.

The state of the treasury left, once the last dragons were counted, was deemed enough to pay the troops for a last campaign before winter made all military movements impossible. As King Stannis and his bannersmen had hoped to recruit and form new troops to compensate for their losses, this was a deception for them. Any campaign, with the peasants going to the fields for a last harvest, was going to be extremely short and not really worthwhile. Just before the trials of the traitors began, however, news came the Lannister army had left the capital and was marching southwards at full speed. Judging all the men (including the Florents) who had tried to desert his side guilty, the Baratheon king condemned them to death .Lord Alester Florent tried to protest with words that convinced no one, earning him the title of "Poor Liar". The culpability in most cases was evident, with several letters written by the accused speaking about sabotages, assassinations and treasons. All the hostages of the Reach Houses having followed Randyll Tarly at King's Landing were also declared traitors and would endure the same penalty. Unlike any trial, the prisoners were not executed immediately; instead the hostages and the cowards went into Melisandre of Asshai custody. As the Lord of Casterly Rock and his army approached, the prisoners knew that whatever fate had been decided for them wasn't going to be a good one. They had no idea how right they were...


	18. The Storm God must have his due

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. All the unrealistic strategies and imbecilic moves made by the main characters are done by GRRM, not me.

Revan3363: Thank you. As for Melisandre, well, she isn't happy as long as she has not the occasion to burn someone. So you probably can see where things are going...

Master of Dragons God: To give the credit where it's due, a fox is an animal which is clever. The fault goes to the Florents, who believed having big ears equalled being clever and ambitious. Unfortunately they were only right on the "ambitious" part.

Matt Quinn: Well, that's what happens when you read the story beforehand...

raw666: Ironically, it's not the change of allegiance which is going to be the most damaging thing for the Reach. It's their lack of strategic sense and understanding in military matters. When you have an idiot like Mace Tyrell in command, and your opponents are at least moderately competent, things can only turn badly.

Dorne and the Vale are each staying neutral in the short term (the long term is another story) the first being blocked from it by the stalling efforts of Doran Martell, the latter by Lysa Arryn under Baelish orders.

Paul: Fortunately or unfortunately, Loras Tyrell is not among the condemned hostages. The Tyrells were not among the Houses which attacked Stannis (if they had the outcome would have been far closer to canon). Stannis will not kill the Knight of Flowers without having a very good reason, as he's the key of Highgarden's neutrality.

Balon's death, alas, is in this chapter and is pretty much the same as canon. I couldn't simply in my mind find another issue. Balon is the King of the Iron Islands, and is respected by his warriors and captains as a leader of men despite having a very limited intelligence. Any death planned for him would require his men letting him be slaughtered without batting an eye, a feat I find unsurprisingly difficult to engineer. So no, no awful death for Balon. I will catch up with other members of the Greyjoy family...

 **The Storm God must have his due**

 **The second Greyjoy Rebellion Part II**

 _"Listen! Listen to the waves! Listen to the god! He is speaking to us, and he says, we shall have no king but from the kingsmoot! "_ Aeron Greyjoy, 300AC.

 _"There is only one legitimate king of the Iron Islands, and his name is Theon Greyjoy."_ Last words of Lord Sawane Botley, 300AC.

As the first longships came back from their Northern reavings, King Balon Greyjoy was forced to admit his revenge had taken a rather unimpressive turn. While losses in terms of ships and men were not that catastrophic, the reality that the Ironborn had been bloodied against an enemy which was waiting for them in their well-defended castles was hard to accept. Furthermore, the raids that had been successful (against undefended targets) brought back little treasure in gold, thralls or salt wives. And while the first temptation was to blame the Storm God (which was the natural enemy of all the Drowned God believers and Ironborn), many were prompt to criticize the leadership of the invasion force, especially when no captain loyal to the Greyjoys were on the vicinity. Balon Greyjoy, for all his faults, was a good leader of reavers, and realised his kingship was to be a very short one unless a solution to satisfy his captains was found. Fortunately, there was one. The Westerlands, which were the nearest lands from the Iron Islands, were declining in militarily strength. The Northern and Riverlands cavalry led by King Robb Stark had killed or captured the great majority of the West remaining manpower, making a large raid a less risky proposition as it had been before the Westerosi Civil War. The Western coast still under Lannister control was vulnerable as long as Lord Tywin didn't come back to his lands. Some men would have estimated premature to make plans when the majority of the Iron Fleet was still sailing around Cape Kraken. Not Balon Greyjoy. After the deception caused by the Invasion of the North, the King of the Iron Islands was determined to honour his title of Reaver King .King Balon and some of his councillors having stayed at Pyke (including several "Old Way " fanatics) selectioned their targets among the small list of fortresses having escaped to the fury of the wolves, finally stopping their choice on Faircastle, Crakehall and of course Lannisport .The last one, in fact, was the critical part of the plan. With the entirety of the Lannister fleet at anchor there (other ships having been evacuated from the least protected harbours to escape the Northern armies); there was the possibility of erasing the western fleet as a whole in a single battle, an occasion that may never be the case again. Surprisingly, it was Victarion Greyjoy himself, freshly returned from the North, who emitted reservations about the whole plan. Having dealt with several false assumptions like 'Moat Cailin is totally undefended ' in the last campaign , the Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet suggested this time some of his lighter ships watched the real strength of the Lannister coastal defences before launching the assault . This time, through, it appeared there were no armies waiting to face the Ironborn. King Robb, warned of the Invasion of the North, was marching in direction of the Golden Tooth with the wealth that had been raided in the last days. Very few able men were left in the West, except a solid garrison led by Ser Daven Lannister at Casterly Rock. The plan of attack was approved.

Sailing far in the Sunset Sea to deceive the western watch towers, the Iron fleet attacked Lannisport in the middle of the night. Surprise was total; the Western admirals in charge thinking the Ironmen and their fleet were busy raping and raiding in the North. In a few minutes, the Lannister fleet was in flames, and Victarion Greyjoy landed ashore to plunder the greatest city of the West. Overwhelmed by the ferocity of their enemies, the City Watch of Lannisport mounted a valiant defence in face of the assault, but it was evident the experience was in favour of the attackers. It was only the intervention of Ser Daven Lannister, who sallied with a thousand men out of Casterly Rock, which allowed turning the tide. After one night and half a day without the battle being decided, the captains of the Iron Fleet finally retreated, their goals partially accomplished. The Lannister war galleys were all lying at the bottom of the harbour (a few had even been captured), and hundreds of thralls and salt wives had been taken (even if most of them were captured outside the walls), erasing the failure of the Northern campaign in a single raid. Victarion Greyjoy then led his fleet to Fair Isle, and the island was sacked as a retribution for the defeat having taken place there ten years ago. Faircastle was stormed and Lord Sebaston Farman perished sword in hand. The Ironborn prepared then to sail to Crakehall, where they hoped to make the next successful raid of the war. Destiny, however, had other plans in mind.

Autumn had come to Westeros, and as usual for the season, rather large storms were passing over the Iron Islands. King Balon Greyjoy was just walking on a bridge when one of the storms in question unleashed its fury, and the King of the Iron Islands fell from the violent wind that shook Pyke to its foundations. With this extreme weather conditions, rescue was impossible, and the fall was so high anyway that no one, not even a king, could survive. Two days later, the corpse of Balon Greyjoy came back ashore, partially eaten by the crabs. The castle of Pyke had already a new master by that point. Euron Greyjoy, captain of the Silence, had returned from exile and immediately claimed the Seastone Chair for him. The timing of the return was particularly viewed as suspicious, Euron having been banished by his elder brother three years ago. Lord Sawane Botley, who had declared against Euron 'Crow's Eye' Greyjoy, was drowned in a cask of seawater. For having stated that the throne was Theon's, Euron dispossessed Sawane's sons of the lordship, a fact made easier by the fact that the elder son, Harren, had died at Moat Cailin and the rest were not present to contest the deed .Germund Botley, Sawane's brother, was made Lord of Lordsport by Euron but half of the lands previously attached to the title were given to House Wynch for having been the first to declare for the King of Crows. Victarion Greyjoy didn't intend to stay far away while the brother he had always hated put his hands on the Seastone Chair. The Iron Fleet sailed home, and by this point civil war in the Iron Islands was virtually a certainty. Only the calls of the Drowned Priests for a kingsmoot stalled the incoming bloodbath. For how long was an interesting question...


	19. Bloody Negotiations

**Bloody Negotiations**

 **The Battle for the Riverlands Part VI**

 _"Who would believe you weren't aware of it, Captain? Lannisters lie."_ Ser Brynden 'Blackfish' Tully, 300AC.

 _"Why are they still alive?"_ Princess Arya Stark, 300AC.

In the aftermath of the battle having taken place at the capital, the chaos generated was so great a certain number of issues were left unanswered or even forgotten completely. Tyrion Lannister was first unconscious, and then relegated to the office of Master of Coin. Petyr Baelish had left the capital for Highgarden, and several notable members of the court had found their end in the fury of the battle. There was simply no one who knew or bothered to attract some attention to the issue of a Lannister delegation sent to Riverrun to negotiate Ser Jaime Lannister's release. Escorted by Ser Donnel Locke and a dozen Northern cavalrymen, the Lannister party was consisting in two hundred soldiers of the Lion's household guard. Commanded by Captain Vylarr, the Westerlands knights had been heavily involved into the power's struggle between Cersei Lannister and Tyrion Lannister. As emissaries to the King in the North and the Riverlands, the men in question would be out of the political arena for a while. The travel revealed itself arduous, with seven men killed and fifteen wounded, the peace banner proving it useless against the bandits now plaguing the Crownlands and the Southern Riverlands.

The situation didn't get really any better once the delegation reached the Tully stronghold. As King Robb Stark was in the Riverlands and Ser Brynden Tully was hunting remnants of Essossi mercenaries near the Stoney Sept, the emissaries were received by Ser Edmure Tully (Lord Hoster being too ill to leave his quarters). The negotiations once started, soon began to take a rather unsatisfactory turn. Acting under Tyrion Lannister's instructions (and unaware how much the political scene at the capital had changed in the mean time ) , Captain Vylarr asked for the liberation of Ser Jaime Lannister and all the Westernlords , knights and men-at-arms captured in the last two years by the Starks and the Tullys . Also demanded was the complete allegiance of the North and the Riverlands, with a full renunciation of Robb Stark's claim of establishing "the Kingdom in the North". In exchange, all the prisoners in Lannister's custody would be freed, Lady Sansa and Arya Stark repatriated to Winterfell along with the ancestral sword Ice. The terms were met only by the incredulity of the lords present. Granted, it was the custom of negotiations to ask more than you wanted in a parley, but the first round of propositions was so out of touch with reality it bordered on insanity. Not counting Ser Jaime Lannister , the Tullys had in custody Lord Gawen Westerling, Lord Quenten Banefort , Lord Regenard Estren, Ser Tytos Brax, Willem Lannister , Lord Roland Crakehall , Lord Antario Jast , Martyn Lannister and Lord Garrison Prester . Hundreds of knights and common soldiers were also prisoners at Pinkmaiden, Riverrun, Harrenhal and other castles (each prison's capacity being stretched to the limit). On the other side , the Lannisters had Sansa and Arya Stark , a Valyrian sword and a dozen knights and soldiers of little notoriety or importance . Edmure Tully rejected immediately the terms, asking Vylarr to stop losing the times of the persons present. In the days that followed, the Lannister captain tried to soften his position from the initial offering, but to no avail. Each side was convinced to have the upper hand. Moreover, each had received strict instructions from their 'masters' (respectively Robb Stark and Tyrion Lannister) not to bend on certain points. Matters turned to a catastrophic turn for the Lannister delegation when a raven came from Harrenhal affirming that Arya Stark had been found and was on her way to Riverrun. News of King's Landing battle also came from the South, along with triumphant proclamations of Lannister victories. Negotiations collapsed instantly. Edmure Tully, supported on this view by all his bannersmen, refused to treat anymore, convinced Vylarr had been sent to make the North and the Riverlands lose the war on the diplomatic field (it was as well the marriage of Sansa Stark and the reforging of Ice was not common knowledge at that moment) .After all, if one person supposed to be hostage of the Lannisters was not prisoner, how could the Riverlords be sure all the affirmations and promises were not lies?

Unfortunately for Vylarr, this was just the day some of his 'guards ' chose their moment to execute their secret mission. Recruited by a sellsword in the service of Tyrion 'the Imp' Lannister himself, some members of Vylarr's party had not been Westerlands knights but Kingslanders outlaws specialised in thievery, forgery and assassination. Covered in red and gold cloaks, their role was to free Ser Jaime Lannister and escape. The attempt nearly succeeded, but failed when Brynden 'Blackfish' Tully, returning from the Stoney Sept, caught Jaime and his rescuers at Riverrun's gates. The fight which followed was extremely violent and one-sided. The Lannister 'guards ' had not had time to steal horses; facing hundreds of veterans cavalrymen and infantrymen in front of them had not been anticipated in the plan. Ser Jaime Lannister, who was supposed to be a valuable swordsman, turned out to be a burden without his fighting hand. Vylarr's knights (the real ones ) , woken up by the noise , tried to intervene to assist in Jaime Lannister's liberation , and were engaged by the Riverlords also running to see what was happening . Most of the Lannister guards were massacred, the Tullys guards being furious about such a breach in the guest rules. The survivors, along with Ser Jaime Lannister, were subdued and joined the Kingslayer in the discovery of Riverrun dungeon's rats. Of the 200 members of the Lions household guards having participated in the evasion attempt, only 78 saw the end of the week.

The consequences did not stop there, however. Fifteen Tully guards had been killed in the attempt and dozens of others were wounded. The Riverlords were in a murderous rage, and seeing Jaime Lannister being dragged in the mud after having been humiliated with a sword in his only hand was not enough of a consolation. Fortunately or unfortunately, neither Edmure nor Brynden Tully felt they had the right to administer the justice to the survivors. Fortunately, because the Blackfish was in the mind of hanging them all. Unfortunately, because the next party to arrive at Riverrun was the detachment of Ser Wylis Manderly and Lady Arya Stark. The young 'She-Wolf', as she was already known in Roose Bolton's army, had seen her father and all her guards butchered at the capital. Most had been killed by Goldcloaks, but a vast number of deaths could be blamed on the Lannister guards. And while under normal circumstances, no one would have listened what a girl having not celebrated twelve namedays wanted, a princess with a huge female direwolf on her side was another thing completely. According to the mill of rumours, the monster called Nymeria had been leading hundreds of wolves in the Riverlands since the beginning of the war, slaughtering and eating men, horses and sheeps indifferently. That the animal had come back to obey its mistress when she called it back near Stone Hedge was extremely worrisome. The term 'warg ' was more than once whispered in the camps when the sun disappeared. The howls of the wolves in the distance didn't help convincing the servants and the common soldiers of their opinions.

To be fair the Riverlords were eager for revenge and the arrival of Princess Arya certainly was the justification to act. Only the personal intervention of Edmure saved Jaime Lannister and the other highborn hostages, but several men-at-arms and knights in the cells had no prestigious House names to protect them. The 78 guards having survived the tentative of evasion were hanged, and between forty and fifty soldiers who had been captured at the Second Battle of Riverrun lost their life as well. Arriving less than three days later, King Robb Stark was by all accounts perturbed by the sheer hate his sister expressed towards anything carrying red and having the shape of a lion (the rumours that Lady Arya asked for Ser Jaime to be Nymeria's meal were never confirmed by any reliable witness) .One thing was sure, the Lords of the Westerlands had definitely exploited the last pieces of good will the Starks ever had. And the West was going to pay a high price for their actions...


	20. All hail the Crow

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. GRRM killing several times Beric Dondarrion only for the man to die and create Lady Stoneheart is not only disturbing but also terribly unjust even by Westerosi standards.

raw666: Jaime will have a role to play before the end. But his fighting days are over. To be honest, he deserves it. Even in his POV in the books, Jaime is one of the rare characters it's hard to sympathise with. Unlike the Starks and some other characters who try to uphold their family values, Jaime played the role of the idiot with a sword in his hand for most of his life, and then wondered why the rest of the Seven Kingdoms were so unfair with him in spite of showing a level of arrogance worthy of a god.

Robb will not send Jaime's head to King's Landing, he would receive Sansa's in return. But he's not going to stay inactive. You will see in the next chapters...

Master of Dragons God: The only thing scarier than an angry wolf is an angry Stark with a hungry direwolf. Then you really know the meaning of the world "trouble".

Paul: I assure you that when I write a chapter, there's a reason behind it. In that case, the reason will become evident in several chapters to end an issue with a certain character. As for the creepiness, remember in the books the Lannister guards were hanged too, only Jaime killed more soldiers of the Riverrun garrison because he had still his fighting hand and Arya was not present. Anyway, the world of the Seven Kingdoms has situations which are awful and horrible. Most of them are unfortunately done by humans and humans only.

 **All hail the Crow**

 **The second Greyjoy Rebellion Part III**

 _"I am the storm, Reader. The first storm, the biggest storm and the last one. "Euron_ III Greyjoy to Rodrik Harlaw, 300AC.

 _"I say we take it all! I say we take Westeros! "Euron_ III Greyjoy to the kingsmoot, 300AC.

 _"The Ironborn died when the Crow was crowned."_ Asha Greyjoy, 305AC.

At the beginning, the idea of organising a kingsmoot was Aeron 'Damphair' Greyjoy's, Balon's youngest surviving brother. At first sight, it was a very good idea, as it certainly avoided a civil war in the Iron Islands. In reality, it was anything but: if the losers of the kingsmoot chose to defy the results and refused to recognise the winner as the Iron King, the consequences would be even worse than a Civil war between the different members of House Greyjoy. The Iron Islands were already at war with the Lannisters and the Starks; a conflict between five or six different factions in top of this situation would accomplish once for all the total destruction of the Iron Islands's unity. A kingsmoot was as a result a rather risky bet; more so by the persons who were coming to participate. It was no secret Victarion Greyjoy and Euron Greyjoy particularly loathed each other; and with Theon Greyjoy, Balon's only surviving son, being an "honoured guest" at Riverrun, the two brothers were the most serious candidates.

The first kingsmoot since two thousand years opened on Nagga's hill under a stormy sky, like the weather it realised the importance of the situation and gave the climate of an imminent world's end. The first person to advance was Lord Gylbert Farwynd, Lord of the Lonely Light. Tall and spare, the head of House Farwynd proposed to lead the Ironborn to a land in the Sunset Sea where they would be no winter. The presents offered consisted mainly of whalebones and bronze war horns , and not even House Farwynd as a whole supported him , much less the rest of the captains . The men that immediately followed weren't any better, in ideas or in gifts. Among them was Erik 'the Anvil-Breaker' Ironmaker , a popular captain but unable to stand on his own feet anymore ; at eighty-eight years old , the man was not able to wield his huge warhammer and had to be carried by his sons . While his silver presents were appreciated, his physical deficiencies cut him from popular support. After him came Lord Dunstan Drumm, Lord of Old Wyk and captain of the _Thunderer._ His bronze gifts were not well received, and moreover, Drumm had already lost everyone on a long and boring speech about the history of his House.

Then it was the turn of Victarion Greyjoy. Advancing with several famous raiders of the Iron fleet at his side like Nute the Barber, Ralph the Limper and Red Ralf Stonehouse as his champions, his gifts of gold, silver and gems attracted many to his side. However, many remarked that unlike the men that had preceded him, Victarion's ideas had nothing original; having followed Balon's orders the majority of his life, the Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet continued his elder brother's ambitions even after his death. His niece Asha Greyjoy took the opportunity to intervene, and criticised her deceased father's decision to invade the North in the most evident fashion: most of her coffers were full of mud, cobblestones and pinecones. The message was clear: until now, the wars of Balon Greyjoy had cost a lot of men for practically no wealth or strategic advantage in return .A polite manner to affirm her father and uncles were rather lacking in the intelligence section. Having considered she had very few chances of being crowned Queen , Asha Greyjoy put her claim in the name of her brother Theon , who was the legitimate heir to the Iron Islands . The proposition of the young woman, to make peace with the North and divide the Westerlands between themselves attracted a third of the assembled captains. However, it also brought conflict with Victarion's supporters, who had not liked in the least the insinuations of the previous King's daughter. A riot was already forming and the crowd appeared ready to fight when one member of Euron Greyjoy's crew sounded a Valyrian war horn.

The sound that went out, according to all witnesses, was horrible and unnatural. The fight, which had seemed unavoidable, ceased instantly. Euron Greyjoy stepped forward, and claimed the Seastone Chair for himself. His reasoning was crystal-clear: with the horn in his possession, Euron affirmed he could bend dragons to his will. With the last three fire-breathing lizards alive in the whole world, the Ironborn would conquer Westeros as a whole. During his speech, the crew of the _Silence_ carried a vast amount of treasure, gold, silver and other jewels from all over Essos and far-away lands. The Iron captains, who had never been the most cunning or cautious men, abandoned instantly the plans of Asha and Victarion Greyjoy, which instantly appeared limited and small-scaled. Euron promised them more victories, wealth and plunder than in their wildest dreams: they would follow him. Nearly four-fifth of the captains present on Nagga's Hill acclaimed Euron Greyjoy as their King to rapturous applause, and Aeron Greyjoy was forced to crown his least favourite brother as King of the Iron Islands.

Not everyone chose to bend the knee to Euron, but with Victarion's Iron Fleet blocking the only way out known as Nagga's Cradle, resistance or escape was not feasible. Asha Greyjoy and several of her most loyal captains managed to evade capture, having taken the precaution of keeping their longships in another harbour. Lord Baelor Blacktyde, captain of the _Nightflyer_ and several of his captains had not this chance. The young man had lost his father in Balon's rebellion nine years ago, and as a result had spent several years hostage as Oldtown, a time during which he converted to the Faith of the Seven. In the kingsmoot he declared for Asha Greyjoy and tried to leave shortly thereafter when Euron was crowned. His tentative and those of others captains failed against the Iron fleet, and Baelor was delivered to King Euron, who ordered his crew to cut him in seven pieces for the gods he adored. Several sailors and captains were also killed in the next days across the Islands when the result of the kingsmoot was known and they refused to swear allegiance to the new King. The Drowned Priests, the men following the call of the Drowned God, started to be hunted wherever they passed, as they never hid their disgust of Euron III Greyjoy. Aeron Greyjoy disappeared, and many believed the new Iron King had permanently dealt with his brother to avoid a religious uprising in his absence.

Having established his power base and broken in the short term all dissention , Euron III Greyjoy gathered all his fleet and sailed south .Erik Ironmaker was named Lord Steward of the Iron Islands and given the hand of Asha Greyjoy (assuming he could find her ) while Euron III was going reaving . The new King (the seventh so far in Westeros to be crowned) had promised Westeros to his troops, and he intended to keep his word. Avoiding the last towers standing of the Westerlands, the Ironborn longships continued their course southwards, before leaving their course along the coast and entering the Sunset Sea. Surprise, after all, had to be total...


	21. The West must burn

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. And not only because some author let the dragons stay far away from Westeros for five books in a row.

raw666: The Ironborn are going to be destroyed, it was hinted in the last chapter. And I promise you the end is going to be spectacular. But they will do a lot of damage before falling. They are a mix of Vikings, berserkers and some of the nastiest cultures found on Earth. They will not surrender.

Daenerys will not be included in the Eight Kings, sorry. However, she will have a greater title than king or queen before the end...

Master of Dragons God: It's sure the Ironborn have really few endearing points which makes them good allies to others kingdoms. Moreover their culture and their economy are dying. Alas, they have not realised it.

Paul: I was tempted to put another candidate for the kingsmoot, but the sad reality is that in any case, the odds are so overwhelming in favour of a Greyjoy sitting the throne (war skills, prestige, cruelty, allegiance) that few captains would dare go against the kraken. No matter the king, a Greyjoy is a Greyjoy and they would have remembered a man trying to rally support against them.

There will be men in the future pretending to be Aeron Greyjoy. Now will one of them be the real deal? Euron is many things, but he's not stupid, and he wouldn't have left his brother in a position where the Drowned Priest is able to make a nuisance of himself.

 **The West must burn**

 **The Invasion of the Westerlands Part II**

 _"The West must burn."_ King Robb Stark, 300AC.

" _Three years ago the Westerlands were the wealthiest kingdom of Westeros. Now, our lands are everywhere scenes of desolation and death. Winter has truly come to the Westerlands_ "Ser Daven Lannister, 300AC.

After the bad turn taken by the negotiations between House Tully and House Lannister, peace between the kingdom of the North and the Iron Throne had no chance to be achieved. Deprived of any diplomatic issue, the only solution which remained for King Robb Stark and his bannersmen was to score a decisive and complete military victory over Tywin Lannister, King Tommen and the Western lords still on the field (a raven from the Crownlands having informed them King Joffrey had left this world). At first, it didn't seem so bad. Led by Edmure Tully and a large majority of Noble Houses of the Riverlands, a faction formed to convince the captured Western lords to turn their cloaks, change their allegiance to King Robb and divide the West by placing their own supporters in power in the citadels of the Lannisters. Unfortunately, the nobles captured on the battlefield declined all the propositions offered. The victories of "the Young Wolf" were impressive, but it was simply nothing in comparison to the fear the knights and Westerners felt at the idea of betraying Lord Tywin Lannister. The fate of the Reynes and the Tarbecks was too well-known and terrifying for any person of noble blood to join the Northern cause. Efforts to recruit the common infantryman were more successful (they could hardly be less ) , but even then , most chose to decline , fearing what could happen to them and their families if the Lions managed to emerge victorious . The plans to convince the Westerlands to get out of the war nicely had not worked. Bloodier plans had to be made.

As a consequence, it was the supporters of the faction asking to raid the Westerlands who gained importance. Led by Lord Jon "Greatjon" Umber, Lord Rickard Karstark and several other prominent Northern lords and knights, many in the Stark's army began to express the opinion that the Lannisters deserved to be destroyed, as their recent actions during the current conflict proved their ambition and their non-respect of the laws beyond any doubt. Some popular commanders like Ser Brynden Tully were totally opposed to the sort of ravage this reign of terror entailed; not because they had affection for the Lannisters, but due to the presence of the Ironborn reavers who would certainly intervene once the defences of the West were no more. Following the failure of the plan to trap the Westerlands army in the Riverlands, the King in the North had partially abandoned the invasion of the Westerlands and gone back to Riverrun with the majority of his cavalry. By the date a council was convened, it was clear the King in the North was not ready to unleash his army on the West in the same manner Tywin Lannister had done in the Riverlands. King Robb had, according to all reports, huge difficulties to make his younger sister Princess Arya share his point of view. The Ironborn navy had heavily raided the Western coast of the North, the Riverlands were a spectacle of desolation, and the lords of the Vale still refused to intervene in his favour. Only the fact that the Baratheons, the Tyrells and the Lannisters had other priorities left the Kingdom of the North and the Trident safe from any military threats in the short term. The weather was also becoming a major issue. The cold and dry days of summer's end had been succeeded by rains which worsened day by day: soon making war would be impossible. Snow was already falling in the North, making all possible travels slow and tiring for the homeland troops. Unless weather conditions changed miraculously, the war was going to stop the next year because no side would be able to fight even a skirmish in these conditions. Indeed, common soldiers of the Tullys and Starks were pleading to go home for a last harvest. And then news came again from the Crownlands.

No one was able to be a witness when Robb Stark received the raven carrying the news of his sister's marriage to Tyrion Lannister and the destruction of the sword Ice, but historians wholefully agreed it must have been bad. The howls of the direwolves hunting outside Riverrun's walls only understated the point. When the King in the North entered Riverrun's great hall, one could hear a cold silence, one which was obviously not the kind of good news which the crowd awaited.

The lords of the Riverlands and the North took the marriage and the affronts against House Stark as well as one could have expected in these circumstances. Very badly. At the light of these humiliations, there could be no moderation anymore. Lord Rickard Karstark was given the command of a new invasion force to raid the West with only the instructions "the West must burn". The lord of Karhold took only 3 000 men with him of the Northern-Riverlands army, but added to it were hundreds of sellswords from Essos and the South, the majority having left the employment of the Lannisters in the last months. Amongst them were companies like the Brave Companions, which had arrived from Harrenhal, attracted by the promise of loot. The livestock and the gold taken by the first invasion of the Westerlands, a quite phenomenal treasury in food and money (maesters in the know spoke about one million and a half gold dragons) had helped the Riverlands population, but the subjects of the King in the North needed more to prepare winter. Rickard Karstark, as a result, was going to plunder once more the Lions and their bannersmen.

Unfortunately for the Lannister cause, Lord Tywin and King Stannis forces were clashing over the Wendwater Bridge when the new invasion began. Lord Karstark was free once again to bypass the Golden Tooth , only to find himself facing the 4 000 men of Ser Daven Lannister at Sarsfield . Indeed , learning the Northern cavalry had abandoned the Westerlands , the son of the deceased Ser Stafford Lannister had rallied the survivors of his father's army at Casterly Rock and began the long process of learning how much damage the forces of the Young Wolf had done to places like Ashemark and the Crag . The surprise was total on both sides, but the encounter was not in Ser Daven Lannister's favour. Many of the men brought by Ser Daven were freshly recruited from Lannisport taverns (places of ill reputations since the beginning of the conflict) or survivors from Oxcross's disaster .Facing once again what was believed to be the cavalry of King Robb Stark (which was in fact Karhold's cavalry) the recruits and the veterans experienced a large moment of panic before running the fastest they could in the other direction. Once battle was joined, it was more a rout than a slaughter. The Lannister men engaged the Karstarks with less than 2500 men in the first minutes, and were rapidly thrown back in their camp where a confused melee was reigning, everyone trying to flee with possessions that were not often the ones they had the ownership the day before . Ser Daven Lannister and his captains managed to escape and return to the safety of Casterly Rock, but the Westerlands were now defenceless for the second time in two years before a Northern army. The only light in the darkness was that Lord Karstark had not brought siege engines this time either, so Casterly Rock and Lannisport were not in danger of being assaulted. The rest of the West had less chance. Having learnt that the North-Western castles had been taken during the first invasion, a plague of brigands and sellswords fell upon the area. Lord Rickard, however, marched south with his forces in direction of Tarbeck Hall. There, were most of the castles and lands ignored by the King in the North in the first campaign. In mere days, the banners of the white sun gained a reputation of ferocity, and several 'Lannis ' and other golden-haired knights died arms in hands. The Southern Westerlands were now a spectacle of desolation. While the common folk were usually spared by the regular Northern soldiers, the sellswords considered themselves above such petty obligations and what could not be taken by them was burnt or killed. Cornfield was sacked, and the castle of Crakehall fell only after most of its defenders gave their life to defend it. Thousands of common Westerners found themselves on the roads to escape the war, much like what had happened in the Riverlands before. The reputation of House Lannister fell in the abyss among the lower classes, as the overlords of the Westerlands were unable to stop the tide of destruction. Riots began in villages where the Lannister guards remained, demanding food and a home for their families .At Sarlsfield, where Lord Rickard Karstark had made his base for the Second Invasion of the Westerlands, hundreds of peasants and miners formerly sworn to Lord Tywin or one of his lords began to rally to the Northern cause, the only one which seemed to be able to protect them. Assisting powerlessly to this disaster in their unassailable fortress , House Lannister (or at least the members who were still there led by Genna Lannister, Tywin's sister ) , sent dozens of ravens to King's Landing , pleading , begging , for the return of Lord Tywin Lannister to stop the relentless pillage of their lands . The Lord Paramount of the Westerlands sadly was too far from help. Badly needed to protect the Crownlands from all threats, it was doubtful even the full Lannister army could have planned for the axe which was on its way to crush their hopes...


	22. Death to the traitors

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. If you have really bad guys who have plans for world domination and exterminating humanity, you don't wait for five books to introduce them in strength. Especially not when their opponents is a band of rapists and murderers who will betray each other for a gold coin.

raw666: Half of Dorne is only desert, and there are really few targets for a band of pirates in search of loot and plunder. Apart from the Greenblood river, Sunspear and Planky Town, there is not a lot to take in Dorne. And the dangers of getting bit by spiders, scorpions and snakes are high. I doubt the Greyjoys, even the less intelligent ones, would be keen on such an adventure.

Your speculations for the eighth king are very interesting and detailed. But I will give no clue (evil smirk).

Master of Dragons God, Revan3363: Thanks for supporting my story.

Paul: The problem is not controlling the sellswords. The real issue is: are the Northern lords interested in controlling the sellswords?

There will be two chapters (this one included ) before the confrontation between Tywin and Stannis in the Stormlands, which is a three chapters arc.

As for Tywin's ... he will have his moment to repent before the end.

Matt Quinn: No, Robb is not forced to obey everything Arya says. But some of his bannersmen had the same views as his sister, and they were harder to ignore.

melubarv: The Targaryens have never been good kings in the long run. They had dragons and they had some geniuses (Aegon I and Jaehaerys I ) but half of their family was barking mad and it got worse generation after generation. By contrast, even the Lannisters as a dynasty are downright brilliant.

The Starks by contrast seem rather good rulers, and before the coming of the Andals would have been an interesting option. Alas, with them not following the same traditions and religion than the rest of the realm, chances for the Starks to dominate the continent are rather weak, especially with their manpower issues. North plus Riverlands plus Westerlands is a maximum, and even that leaves them dangerously over-extended for the future.

And now, the new chapter, where a man who understands nothing to war tries to prove the contrary...

 **Death to the traitors**

 **The Battle for the South Part II**

 _"Mace's Tyrell ego is so big it can be seen from where I stand in the Red Keep. Impressive considering I have problems to see the Kingswood these days "_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

 _"Mace Tyrell is in love with his own intelligence. Too bad nobody gave him the information his wits died years ago "_ Oberyn Martell, 300AC.

According to several persistent rumours ,Lord Mace Tyrell was during the Eight King's War compared to a puff fish by his own mother Olenna 'the Queen of Thorns ' Redwyne . If the quote was accurate, one might say it was appropriated. Despite having been once upon a time a promising knight, the head of House Tyrell, Lord Paramount of the Reach and Warden of the South, was developing by 299AC a not very endearing reputation of limited intelligence. He was also fat (although not quite to the extent of the deceased King Robert Baratheon ) and quick to boast of his imaginary deeds , like winning the battle of Ashford during Robert's Rebellion while everyone else in Westeros attributed the victory to Lord Randyll Tarly. It was to no one's surprise, then, that Mace Tyrell took particularly badly the treason of House Florent. Disregarding totally the calls of prudence and patience of his mother , "lord puff fish" left Highgarden with all his remaining troops , which were numbering between 8 000 and 10 000 men , a quarter of them cavalry . Before leaving, ravens were sent to Garlan Tyrell, on his way back to Highgarden, to deal with all the castles of the bannersmen having bent the knee to Stannis on his path. Given the strategic situation, Cider Hall of House Fossoway was certainly the primary target Mace Tyrell had in mind for his son. Mace's host, of course, was going to march to Brightwater Keep, home of the treacherous, long-eared and ambitious Florents. All the bannersmen of the House carrying the fox sigils were declared traitors, considering most of them had gone to serve Stannis's cause. Several vassals knights sworn to House Hightower were also included , although in their case it was more the result of disappointed nobles having not enjoyed the arrogant attitude of Loras Tyrell humiliating and executing allies and friends having failed in their duty .

In a way, using so many men to invest Brightwater Keep was like using a warhammer to swat flies. Nine-tenths of all military men sworn to Brightwater Keep had gone to besiege King's Landing; there were only old men and children remaining in the ancestral home. But it was also stupid to use the near complete wartime capacity of the Reach to hunt traitors: everyone who had a strong probability of being accused of treason could not miss the approach of the mighty forces coming to punish and arrest them. As a result, the "grand hunt of the traitors" proclaimed by Mace Tyrell rapidly turned to something vaguely looking like a joke. All across the Reach, what the master of Highgarden his son and all his loyal soldiers found were abandoned castles with some aged castellans telling them they arrived too late. Brightwater Keep was no exception : Mace Tyrell managed to gain knowledge that Alekyne Florent , who had been named by Lord Alester castellan of his House (and who by now was Lord Alekyne Florent ) , had cravenly run to Oldtown to plead Lord Hightower's mercy ( and to protect him from the Tyrells of course ) .

After a brief moment of fury where everyone stayed very far away from Mace Tyrell , the tension fell down at Brightwater Keep .As the lord of Highgarden told everyone who was listening (and even those who did not ) , the escape of the Florents , while regrettable , was ultimately of no great consequence . The Lord Paramount of the Reach then proceeded to strip House Florent of all their rights, fortune and land ownerships. The new lord of Brightwater Keep was to be his second son Garlan Tyrell. Lord Garlan, as the Tyrell knight would be called, was to be the founder of the new House Tyrell of Brightwater Keep. If in appearance, all was good and bright in the Reach, the actions of Mace Tyrell created a lot of anger. Of all the lands that were confiscated to the "traitors" following the heretic King Stannis, very little was given to hedge knights or Knightly houses. Most of the land grabs and the money found its way directly to the purse of House Tyrell itself or its close allies like House Redwyne or Hightower. In dynastic terms, it was a wise move. In the real world, hate began to appear in the minds of the Reach bannersmen, and not only because King Stannis executed dozens of hostages for the participation of Randyll Tarly in the battle of King's Landing. For once, Lannister boasts revealed themselves faulty: Lord Mace Tyrell swallowed everything the Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister and Grand Maester Pycelle wrote in their messages.

According to them, King Stannis and his forces were completely beaten, unable to mount any credible threat. Total victory was only a formality and soon, Loras Tyrell would be freed from Storm's End dungeons. To flatten the ego of the High Marshal of the Reach , the elder son of Lord Redwyne , Horras , was liberated from his hostage status and sent back to the Reach with Lord Petyr Baelish to negotiate the marriage of King Tommen Baratheon and Lady Margaery Tyrell (Hobber Redwyne remained as an honoured "guest" at the capital ) . The few shadows in this beautiful picture, like the refusal of Lord Hightower to deliver Lord Alekyne Florent, were swiftly swept under the carpet. The future appeared brilliant for the Lord of Highgarden and his very large and powerful family, who were soon going to join the ranks of the royal family of King's Landing.

It didn't last. Two days after Mace Tyrell's return to Highgarden, grim news reached the citadel of House Tyrell. Lord Osbert Serry himself, Lord of Southshield, arrived in a small galley that was nothing more than a wreck. The fleet of the Shield Islands was no more. The Shield Islands had fallen. The Ironborn fleet had delivered its first devastating strike to the supremacy of the South.


	23. A Shield Shattered

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. Putting a swamp between a region named the North and the rest of a kingdom is a great idea in theory, but you have to ensure it makes sense in terms of climate and geography. And no, magic is not the answer, especially when it is weakened by the absence of dragons and other powerful sorcerers.

raw666: To be honest the only reason House Tyrell is still in the game in canon is a combination of luck, Varys and Littlefinger playing their games and some other things. One might say that until A Feast for Crows, ASOIAF is a Tyrell-wank.

Balon knew the North was a tundra, but he invaded it for revenge for the Greyjoy Rebellion. It was never about wealth, although if he had found gold he would have been pretty happy. Of course this "revenge" is pretty absurd when you consider everyone barring Dorne participated in crushing the Greyjoys. Then again, Balon has never been noted for his vast intelligence...

I would not say an invasion of the Dornish desert is impossible, but it would still be a really hard task. The North is not that far from the Iron Islands; by comparison supplying the Iron Fleet all the way to Dorne would be a nightmare in terms of logistics. Balon could have ordered it (he ordered far more stupid things) but I doubt many of his captains would have obeyed it.

Master of Dragons God: Mace is a puff-fish, and rather good at puffing like the name implies.

Revan3363: Thanks!

Paul: Tywin's end is going to be gruesome and he will be alone to face it. So in the end, no one will know he repented.

Mace's campaign was intended to be a bit comical. In canon, he left entirely the job to Garlan, I figured that a man like Mace would never be able to mush up the strategy if he was there and not at King's Landing. He confiscated the Florent lands in the books for his son, though the details of the rest were a bit sketchy thanks to our esteemed author.

I don't plan for the Tyrells to be exterminated, though they will suffer massive losses in terms of power and prestige. The current chapter is the battle for the Shield Islands, though there will be a bit of time before the next chapter on the Tyrell-Greyjoy war.

Matt Quinn: Indeed, Mace Tyrell and Euron Greyjoy are not in the same league when you speak of military skills.

 **A Shield Shattered**

 **The Battle of the Shield Islands**

 _"A rose or a lion may be fierce enough on land, but at sea, the kraken reigns supreme"_ Victarion Greyjoy, 300AC.

 _"We have definitely won the enmity of the Reach now"_ Lord Rodrik 'the Reader' Harlaw, 300AC.

Two thousand years ago, long before the Eight King's War, the Ironborn had been free to sail up the Mander and plunder every village, keep or town which had the bad luck to draw their attention. Some reavers more intrepid or crazy than the others managed even to reach Bitterbridge. This unending series of success was explained by the Misty islands: four islands on Westeros sunset coast, which served as harbours and land bases for the captains of the Iron Islands. Famous Iron Kings like Joron I Blacktyde made the islands their headquarters for the campaigns against the Reach. The Reach knights and lords, for all their formidable land forces, were unable to stop or even inconvenience the Kings of the Iron Islands in any meaningful manner.

The Ironborn southern raids came to a disappointing end, when King Gyles II Gardener of the Reach assaulted the Misty islands and drove out all the Ironborn at the point of the sword. The Misty Islands were gone; the Gardener dynasty renamed them the Shield Islands. Each of the new conquest was fortified and organised to be the base of a modest Reach naval force. All the southern sailors and fishermen were armed and trained, making effectively the islands a shield against any naval invader wanting to attack Highgarden and the Mander. Greenshield became the seat of House Chester. Oakenshield was given to House Hewett. The rulers of Greyshield were House Grimm, and Southshield was the seat of House Serry. In the first months of 300AC, the Shield Islands still kept that role of naval fortresses, even if the lack of major threats had affected the forces at the disposition of the Shield Lords. There were roughly one thousand men serving in garrison duties for the Shield defences, along with fifty-four warships (mostly small and manoeuvrable galleys). The problem was that many of the fighters stationed there were expected to fight and man the ships, leaving the Shield Islands terribly undermanned if a combined battle on land and sea was to occur. The warnings (mostly done by old and grizzling captains) were fully ignored by the lords and their overlords (and by Lord Mace Tyrell in particular). The Iron Fleet, the only credible threat now that the Royal fleet was gone, was busy raiding and destroying the Westerlands and the North. The Shield Islands were safe and secure. Or were they?

While King Balon Greyjoy had been content and happy to ignore the Reach for most of his lordship and reign, perhaps avoiding coming back to the place where his father Lord Quellon Greyjoy found his death, his successor to the Seastone Chair Euron III Greyjoy had different opinions. The Iron King had promised plunder and reaving to his subjects and he was well intending to keep his promises. The Shield Islands were the first step on this path of murder and wealth. Given the rapport of force, the fight which was in preparation announced itself massively unequal. The Ironborn had a force of nearly 780 ships, with 100 of them belonging to the Iron Fleet and being able to fight on equal terms war galleys. The rest of the force, a diverse deployment of longships, was led by experienced sailors who had passed their entire life at sea. The Ironborn had between 17 000 and 23 000 men in their naval force. But more important, King Euron III Greyjoy had surprise on his side.

Instead of launching all his ships in the direction of the islands, the 'Crow's Eye' method was far more vicious and intelligent. Five longships, led by Torwold Browntooth, sailed in the direction of the Mander, feigning to ignore the Shield's naval forces. The Shield Lords gave chase, without realising they were falling into a trap. All the longships emerged from the Sunset Sea once the Shield fleet was gone and preceded to the sack of the Islands. At the same time, Victarion Greyjoy and all the Iron Fleet closed the Mander's estuary. The Reacher fleet, having failed to catch the raiders, was on its way back to its bases when the men aboard it found facing them a bigger fleet than theirs .The naval action was a disaster for the Reach. Outnumbered two to one by a more dangerous and aggressive naval commander, the Ironborn had the advantage and ruthlessly exploited it. Victarion Greyjoy himself killed Ser Talbert Serry and captured two Reach galleys. The outcome was never in doubt, and the Ironborn lost only five warships, with two too damaged which had to be abandoned ashore a few hours later. The Shield fleet was annihilated; it had lost twenty-eight warships captured and fifteen sunk outright. Of the eleven survivors, three had suffered so much casualties from boarding and ramming attacks they had to be abandoned, wrecks in all but name. The galleys which managed to escape partially unscathed, under the command of Lord Osbert Serry, refugied themselves at Highgarden, carrying the news of the monumental debacle. They were the lucky ones.

Ironborn, whatever the era, had never really adhered to the code of chivalry or any rules concerning war prisoners. Euron III Greyjoy, however, was determined to be a class in himself. The Iron warriors, pushed by a frenzy of blood and glory, devastated completely the Shield Islands. The weak garrisons on each debarkment site were wiped out to the last. Common folk , fishermen ,knights , merchants , it didn't matter ; the majority of them were massacred , beaten , raped or tortured . The inhabitants unlucky enough to be still alive were then put aboard ships were they would be sold to slavers (a move that proved controversial among the captains to say the least as it was deemed against the Old Way). It was an orgy of massacre and destruction, and the nobles were not spared .Lord Humfrey Hewett and Lord Moribald Chester were slained. Ser Harras Harlaw landed at Grimston and killed in duel five knights among the castle's defenders (sparing two others who yielded), making Lord Grimm prisoner in his own castle when the Septon of the House declared the gods had spoken and surrendered the place. In the halls of the lords vanquished, the defeated families received the worst depredations and humiliations. The Ironborn, full of themselves, ignored any call to prudence and moderation from several moderate lords like Lord Rodrik 'the Reader' Harlaw. King Euron III was certainly leading by example in his acts, and the Shield Islands were ravaged by the drunken troops. Several lords and popular captains had to intervene to avoid some warriors to burn their own longships. Judging the winners were free to do as they wished , the King of the Crows gave Nute the Barber the island and the lordship of Oakenshield , naming Andrik the Unsmiling Lord of Southshield , Maron Volmark Lord of Greenshield and Ser Harras Harlaw Lord of Greyshield . The capture of the Shield Islands, after all was only the beginning. What the Crow's Eye intended to do, however, remained a very good question...


	24. The Mountain swims badly

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. There are many fan fiction and professional authors able to write a correct story in less than a year. Needing five years to write two chapters is an insult to the job. Especially when the books are supposed to speak about dragons and you see them once every hundred pages...

raw666: Well, the problem with Euron is his ambitions are at the measure of his sadism: huge! Make no mistake, however: contrary to Mace Tyrell, Euron Greyjoy is a good tactician and is willing to do anything to win his throne.

The Queen of Thorns is effectively in negotiations to marry her granddaughter to Tommen (so a Lannister). On the other hand, the old woman is politically wise enough to delay a bit the talks, in order to see who between Tywin and Stannis is going to emerge victorious. Marrying someone to Stannis family is however impossible. Stannis is still married to Selyse Florent, and he is not fond at all of the Tyrells. He would never accept Willas or Loras marrying Shireen.

Master of Dragons God: No need to be so rude, the Ironborn (and their opponents) are going to die in due time...

X59: Thanks for your review!

Revan3363: Thanks for the support.

Paul: For all his lack of subtlety and intelligence, Victarion Greyjoy is a monster on a one versus one fight. Talbert Serry was brave, yes, but bravery in Westeros often leads you to an early grave.

The Tywin versus Stannis part begins now. It will be a three chapter arc and it is going to change in a major way the strategic situation of the war...

Matt Quinn: My mistake. I will correct it as soon as possible.

Yes, the Harlaws as a whole are what pass for moderates in the Ironborn culture. They fight fair, don't rape all the women of the place they conquer, some even know how to read books! So because they are the most intelligent of the Ironborn, they are totally ignored by the rest of the captains. But they will have their chance to tell "I told you so" before the end...

 **The Mountain swims badly**

 **The Campaign of the Stormlands Part I**

 _"There is a special place in the Seven Hells reserved to Gregor Clegane."_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

 _"Invading the Stormlands in any season but summer is asking for trouble."_ Ser Andrew Estermont, 301AC.

Almost from the start, the Lannister expedition in the Stormlands was plagued with problems. With the quasi-destruction of nearly everything floating in the Blackwater Rush, the ability of sending the intact forces of the Western lords and the Reachers across the river was extremely time-consuming. Two days were necessary to have most of the infantry and the cavalry safe and sound on the southern bank. Another issue was the camp followers and the supply convoys. The double retreat, first to Harrenhal, then across the Riverlands to King's Landing, had cost the Western lords almost all their non-fighters, most who had been accompanying them since the invasion of the Tullys lands by the Golden Tooth. Replacing these camp followers, including smiths and all types of auxiliaries had been a near-impossible task. The population of King's Landing these days would rather massacre the Lannisters than help them , and Lord Tywin Lannister had to recruit massively in the only population which accepted to work for him , the Reach .The prices (in gold dragons ) to conclude the affairs had been hellishly expensive , through . The obstacles didn't cease on the road either. The Kingswood, theatre of a ferocious and vicious battle between Stormlords and Mountain Moon raiders, was now a scene of desolation where deserters of every side found a new home. To this new predicament, the answer of the Lord of Casterly Rock was extremely direct: Gregor Clegane and his band of murderers (infamously known as the 'Mountain's men') were unleashed to punish the brigands having the temerity to skirmish on the vanguard and the rear of the combined Reach-Lannister army. The problem posed by the brigands and deserters was eliminated quickly but that opened moral issues in the Lion's own ranks: men-at arms, knights and lords disapproved the odious methods that were the bread and butter of the Mountain's men. The sight of deserters hanged, the dozens of heads on pikes, the smell of hundreds warriors lying butchered in the woods put a gloomy ambiance, and no bard was able to make the common soldier smile anymore. And to make the picture even bleaker, heavy rains began to fall. The winds of autumn were now in strength , and those unlucky enough to be outside were thoroughly soaked .Except in summer , the Southern Crownlands and the Stormlands were kingdoms were waging a conflict was not pleasant , and the Lannisters infantry discovered why . Even for hardened veterans of multiple campaigns, spirits were glum and morose thoughts were beginning to spread in the army camp. It didn't help that no soldier of Stannis had been seen since the departure from the capital.

This didn't make the affairs of the Lannisters .Lord Tywin Lannister had come south to deliver the fatal blow to the Baratheon cause, but it had been in the optimistic assumption that he could crush Stannis and his army in the Kingswood, far from the Stag's home. In order to protect King's Landing , his force couldn't go southwards without leaving the capital to the protection of the City Guards and a small Lannister force (the previous 'exploits' of the former didn't inspire much confidence on that particular issue ) . It seemed, however, the Lannister army would have to take the risk to go further south to engage the enemy. Ignoring the discontent brewing in his own ranks , the Old Lion walked southwards , with Gregor Clegane and his group preceding them by one day .Logically , it was the Mountain's force which encountered the first Baratheon soldiers that were not deserters or turncloaks at the Wendwater river's crossing . Having built decent fortifications on the southern Wendwater bank, Ser Rolland Storm had positioned expertly his bowmen to inflict heavy losses on any commander stupid enough to charge on the Wendwater Bridge. Unfortunately for the Lannister cause, no one in his right mind used the name "Clegane" and the word "subtlety" or "intelligence" in the same sentence. Seeing his enemies taunting him on the other side, the Mountain gave the order to launch the assault, confident the less than two hundred men he saw could not stop him. Once on the bridge, this conviction was shattered. Not only Ser Rolland had hidden another hundred soldiers in the woods, but the bridge over the Wendwater was collapsing. The Stormlanders had sabotaged the foundations, leaving only enough stability for a man or two to cross. One hundred cavalrymen were more than enough to destroy the stonework. The Mountain and the men having followed him were precipitated in the Wendwater, under the arrows of Rolland Storm's men. The battle had been over in an instant, and it was a Baratheon victory. The "Battle of the Wendwater" was a debacle; one which the cause of King Tommen would have very well went without. Of the one hundred and seventy-nine men with Gregor Clegane, seventy-four survived the engagement, seventy-three of them having had the prudence not to go on the bridge in the first wave. Although no one knew how a thing was possible, Gregor Clegane himself was among them, having emerged alive from the Wendwater current. The days of the Mountain were not even in danger, despite having taken an arrow in the backside. His behaviour, on the other hand, was more murderous and bestial than ever, and they were whispers among the Reachers and the Westerners that the Drowned God of the Ironborn had refused to take the abomination called Gregor Clegane. The Lannister army failed to find Ser Rolland Storm and his men the next day, the bowmen having disappeared in the woods after their exploit. Without the bridge, the troops were forced to ford the Wendwater, an improvised crossing which didn't amuse the already soaked infantrymen at all.

Their entry in the Stormlands being more or less unopposed apart from the Wendwater clash , Lord Tywin made his decision known to continue and engage the Baratheon forces which had just been located before Bronzegate . In a tumultuous council of war, where nearly everyone disagreed with the lord of Casterly Rock for multiple reasons, Lord Randyll Tarly tried to press Tywin to avoid this battle. The soldiers were one step away from mutiny, and a military collapse was not impossible if the lords continued to press their men in such a manner. Supply lines from the Rose Road and the capital were also at their limits. Would the deceased Ser Kevan Lannister have been listened to by his elder brother? Perhaps, perhaps not. But the Lord Paramount of the Westerlands remained deaf to the lord of Horn Hill's advice at the end of the day, when he really ought to have taken into consideration the welfare of his warriors. 14 700 soldiers of the combined South-West army left the Kingswood and emerged in the plains bordering the Bronzegate fortress. The soldiers had no idea that for too many of them, this cloudy and windy day was their last one in this world...


	25. Magic is might

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the TV show associated with it. What they did with some characters who might or might not be mentioned in this chapter was unforgiveable. A man is not skilled in tactics and strategy just because he is evil...

raw666: To be fair, in the Middle Ages, generals and officers had a huge influence over their own vassals and common fighters. If the men supposed to teach restraint are bloodthirsty fanatics, the final result is not going to be pretty...

Master of Dragons God: It's okay, I don't think GRRM read a lot of Viking stories before creating this culture of murderers and pirates...

X59: Good points. I must also point that Tywin, for all his ego, his arrogance and his power, is still a rather average general on the battlefield. His real strength lies in exploiting combined military and politic situations to his advantage (like canon Red Wedding). But give him one army who is not outnumbering significantly its enemy, and his generals skills do not appear as brilliant as the propaganda says...

The Mountain will survive this chapter (though his fate is not mentioned). His performance will be discussed in the next chapter.

Revan3363: Many thanks for the support.

Paul: Now, now I have to find a good chapter title and it wasn't a lie, was it (grin)?

I would not say Tywin is a bad general. I reserve "bad" to a man like Renly Baratheon, who thinks charging head-on an enemy where you haven't recognised the field before is a good idea. For all his faults, Tywin knows how to command, move and use an army on the battlefield. His problems are he's a kind of narrow-minded, calculating general, and so he need time to react when his enemy sprang surprises on him. As you will see, it can be a very bad thing in some cases.

Matt Quinn: Thanks and now we have a new one with a lot of fire and blood...

 **Magic is might**

 **The Campaign of the Stormlands Part II**

 _"Sorcery won the day"_ Ser Lyle Crakehall, 300AC.

 _"My father didn't lose the battle because of magic. He lost because Stannis was and still is a better general than him."_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

In term of battlefield conditions, the plains surrounding Bronzegate were certainly not the best choice to fight a major battle three hundred years after Aegon's Conquest. In the last days preceding the fight, the rains of autumn had delivered so much water to the point that the men present could describe what was in front of them as a "mud river ",a "mud plain "or other characteristics having in common the name "mud". While the southern parts of the Kingswood and the protection of the trees had at least somewhat protected the soldiers from the bad weather, now the combined Reach-Westerlands force faced what could only be described as "horrible terrain conditions". Thankfully for everyone, it didn't rain anymore, and the Lannister scouts were able to watch 7 000 Baratheon infantrymen retrenched behind a wood-earthen fortification on a nearby hill. This was the good news for the Westerners, as they had finally found a large part of Stannis's forces. The bad news , of course , was that these forces weren't Stannis's entire army ; in fact , judging by the Swann , Estermont and other banners , King Stannis himself wasn't here . Moreover, the soldiers in question didn't appear to be hungry, tired or filthy like them: this was evidently an army which had had time to recuperate from its disastrous defeat at King's Landing. The earth and wood fortifications themselves, while pathetic compared to the Bronzegate's stonewalls in the distance, were more than enough to protect from any direct cavalry assault. Added to the presence of a large quantity of mud in front of them, and the lords and knights knew what they had to do in order to win the day. The orders of Tywin Lannister only confirmed their suspicions and fears.

The army was divided in four parts: the first was a reserve of 2 000 cavalrymen under the personal command of Lord Tywin Lannister. The left wing, under the command of Ser Lyle "the Strongboar" Crakehall, had 2 000 pikemen and bowmen. The right wing, under Lord Terrence Kenning, received as many infantrymen. The rest, approximately 8 800 men, were given to Lord Randyll Tarly as the vanguard and main body of the army. Most of the heavy infantry, light infantry and the unmounted knights were there, the Old Lion wanting to break the Baratheon lines at the earliest possible opportunity. Most of the cavalry of the Rock and the South was forced to leave its horses behind, as the mounts would be more than useless in such conditions, an order which was badly received among the Western lords, judging such a command was putting them at the level of the peasants. The plan of battle, as ambitious as it was risky, was to smash the weaker Baratheon army by the numbers. If the vanguard's assault did not prove sufficient to destroy the defences, then the left and right wings would advance further and flank the Swann banners. Attacked from everywhere, the Bronzegate's defenders would thus be forced to throw down their weapons or fight encircled and outnumbered inside their own positions. From the beginning, the scope of the plan proved its downfall. Not trained to fight without their horses or in a muddy field, the Lannister knights had badly underestimated how difficult it was to advance in full armour when the ground under your feet wasn't willing to cooperate. When the Baratheon bowmen began to shoot their arrows, the situation began to change from annoying and tiring to bloody and murderous. Many soldiers, forgetting all their leaders' instructions, tried to break formation and charge the enemy lines at full speed. Not only it was impossible, as the mud slowed down everything, but it disrupted Lord Tarly's lines, who had to reform his formation in order to compensate his losses just before the assault .Needless to say, the men who had tried to charge headlong had paid their errors with their lives. At the same time, the left and right wings advanced, facing the same problems but with less intensity. As Randyll Tarly's force was nearly in contact with his Stormlords counterparts, the battle plan appeared to be still on the path of success.

This instant was instantly shattered by the apparition of a gigantic fire in the middle of the Baratheon lines. Although none of the Reachlords or Westernlords had any means to know, it was Melisandre of Asshai who was burning traitors to King Stannis Baratheon. Lord Alester Florent, Ser Axell Florent and many knights of their House, among many others, perished in a fire which had nothing in common with a 'normal ' fire. Normal fires don't burn people outside the fire. Non-magical fires don't attack Lannister troops deliberately. Because that was it was: magic. Otherwise, how to explain the hundreds of soldiers suddenly attacked by creatures of flames and shadow? Close enough to see the colour of their opponent's eyes, the men under the command of Randyll Tarly received the magical shockwave in its full intensity. Some warriors began to burn for no apparent reason. Knights, who appeared fine at one moment, fell the next with their throat sliced by a weapon of shadows. Veterans of dozens battles screamed when fire and shadow engulfed them and tore them apart. The wizardry done, in fact, was more impressive than damaging. Less than a thousand men were dead or wounded on the Lannister's side, and if the men of the vanguard had continued to advance, they could have forced the Stormlords soldiers under Ser Donnel Swann to retreat to Bronzegate itself. But fighting magic and witchcraft had not been the common soldier's idea of fun. The terror of flame and shadow upon them, lords and common soldiers did the only action which they thought was the intelligent thing: they ran. Lord Tarly, who tried to oppose the move, was struck and trampled on by his own soldiers. Hundreds of men-at arms from Houses Farman, Garner, Algood and Stackspear fell at the hands of their own comrades when they tried to restore order, leading to a total collapse of the main force's cohesion. The Baratheon force counterattacked, and Lord Philip Plumm and his heir Ser Dennis Plumm died at the hands of Ser Donnel Swann.

The left and right wings, having escaped the sorcery's strike, tried to intervene, only to hear a war horn sounding on their right. In the distance, King Stannis and Ser Brus Buckler emerged from the woods where they had been hidden with 3 000 cavalrymen. The moment chosen to strike was perfect. The centre of the Lannister army was in complete chaos, and not even the Warrior himself could have made them warriors again in such short a time. Having only infantry under his command, Lord Terrence Kenning was not in any measure to counter the cavalry assault, and the mud wasn't enough to avoid disaster. The Western pikemen having not had enough to form a wall, King Stannis and his force of cavalry crushed the Westerlands infantrymen. Stannis Baratheon killed himself Lord Kenning, and the right wing of the Lannister army was no more. On the other side of the battlefield, the bowmen of Ser Rolland Storm had arrived and unleashed hundreds of arrows on the soldiers of Ser Lyle Crakehall, preventing him from helping the centre and the right. Defeat , which had seemed impossible , was now almost real for the soldiers of King Tommen Baratheon .Lord Tywin , warned of the impending disaster by the Horn of Herrock ( sounded in his last moments by Lord Kenning ) tried to salvage what he could with his reserve , but it wasn't enough . While Stannis had not hesitated in launching his horses in the mud and blood soaking the plains, the Lord of Casterly Rock couldn't launch a counter-cavalry-charge at the decisive moment, not when his infantry was between him and his target.

In less than a few minutes, the massacre was total, with the right and the centre of the Lannister army ceding and fleeing before the Baratheon troops. The left, under Ser Lyle, was in full retreat. It was the moment the Lord of the Lions chose to launch his last charge. As the Westerosi strategists would conclude afterwards, it was more an act of desperation than anything truly reasoned. Hundreds of Reachers and Westerners were in the way of the Lannister cavalry, and got pulverised by the massive charge. The mud, the size of the cavalry formation, the weight of the warhorses and the fleeing soldiers ensured most of the cavalry beyond the first line was bogged down long before coming close to the enemy. By all accounts, less than three hundred horses, not all with their knights, managed to come close to Stannis's cavalry, which had been their target. Lord Tywin Lannister himself and twenty of his guards managed to come to blows with King Stannis and the Baratheon royal guards. The duel between the Lion and the Stag was brief, and left the two participants wounded. King Stannis had suffered two wounds, one to his arm and one to his chest, both of them superficial . Lord Tywin had lost part of his right leg, cut by Lightbringer in one clean strike. The horse of Lord Lannister, made uncontrollable by the sword of flames, took the next blow destined to his master and Lord Tywin Lannister fell to the ground, his last household guards alive throwing themselves between him and Stannis to prevent the fatal blow. Their actions saved the Lord of Casterly Rock, but most of them died by the steel and flames of Lightbringer. This was enough for the Lannisters still fighting. Seeing their lord fall, most of the infantry and a large part of the cavalry who until there had tried to resist threw down their weapons and fled the battlefield, with only the idea to escape the vengeful Baratheon army. Knights of House Hamell and House Lannister were the last off the battlefield, carrying the wounded Lord Paramount of the Westerlands to safety.

All told, the Battle of Bronzegate, which was soon going to enter the history of Westeros as "the Battle of Mud and Flame ", was carnage beyond recognition. Between 2 500 and 2800 Baratheon men lost their lives for King Stannis. Among the most notable casualties were Lord Harwood Fell and Ser Bonifer Hasty. If the losses were important for the Stormlords, it was nothing compared to what had been inflicted to the Reach-Lannister army. Between the battle of the Wendwater and the battle of Bronzegate, the Westernlords and the Reachlords lost approximately 8 000 men dead and 300 prisoners (given the acts of the Mountain, few were inclined to take men in custody). Lord Randyll Tarly was dead, along with Lord Tytos Algood, Lord Robert Peckledon, Ser Flement Brax, Lord Philip Plumm and many others, whether knights, lords or men-at-arms. Lord Tywin Lannister, unconscious following his duel with King Stannis, was unable to command, and the rout of the Lannister army continued. King Stannis, whose wounds were less serious (or had been healed by Melisandre's sorcery according to more debatable rumours), ordered the pursuit. The campaign of the Stormlands, which had been supposed to destroy the master of Storm's End's cause, was already over before it had fully begun. And now the Crownlands and King's Landing were defenceless before the Stormlords and R'hllor...


	26. Sauve qui peut

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. The stupidity of the Ironborn and the arrogance of Tywin Lannister all belong to GRRM.

raw666: Part of what you said, I'm afraid, is because a certain author did not properly his homework before throwing the foundations of his story. But given everything which is bungled/ ignored/has no reason to happen, this is not unfortunately the only thing readers complain about.

X59: Indeed, a victorious army is always going to have a different point of view from the enemy they just defeated. When you add magic into the mix, temptation is very strong to put the blame on a thought-to-be-extinct weapon.

The cause of King Tommen has taken a disastrous blow it will not recover from. Not with Tywin wounded and Cersei in command. Tyrion in command may have been able to save part of the situation if he was in effective command. He isn't. The chapter below will detail how bad the Lannisters situation is after the battle.

Revan3363, Master of Dragons God: Thanks for the review.

TheAlagoano : Thanks! I have to admit there are a lot of details in ASOIAF to take care of, be it politics, tactics, customs, slavery and all sort of things...

Guest: true, although some have been on the battlefield so long by now the most experienced have become really killing machines. The type of fighters you do not want to cross steel with.

But thanks for the comment and the review.

Paul: Tywin's defeat is for sure going to shatter his reputation of invincibility (who was already dirtied down by the massacres he did in this war). Lyle Crakehall survived and is now by default the senior commander the Lannister remnant until they reach the capital as Tywin is currently indisposed. The two lords, I did only invent the surnames but not the Houses or everything else. It was to make the story more credible, with historians noticing the name of the notable lords and knights.

As for Stannis casualties, most of the Westerlands soldiers panicked but some resisted to the death in order to let the rest of the army escape (which is probably why there is still a Lannister army at all). But outside a few lords and knights, most of the losses were in the cavalry for the decisive charge or untrained troops which were rushed into the battle because the Stormlands commanders saw an opportunity to gain glory.

Matt Quinn: Stannis is not a general who leads from the front, but he knows when to make a good show to boost the morale of his own men. Killing Tywin bodyguards was not that hard really. A lot of them have died since the beginning of the war, and many were the best money could buy. Problem is, not everyone is interested by serving a Lannister (and dying for him) anymore...

 **Sauve qui peut**

 **The Campaign of the Stormlands Part III**

 _"Where is the army?"_ Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister, 300AC.

 _"So many men lost for nothing."_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

Following their catastrophic defeat at Bronzegate, the Lannister army, or what remained of it, was hard-pressed and unable to reform. Lord Tywin was wounded, Lord Kenning and Lord Tarly were dead, and the duty of command fell to Ser Lyle Crakehall. The "Strongboar", as the Crakehall knight had been nicknamed, was utterly unprepared to assume the mantle of the army's commander. To be fair, it was likely that anyone, even Aegon the Conqueror, would have been overtaken by the task at hand. Except the left wing of the army under Ser Lyle's personal command, the Lannister army had ceased to exist as a coherent force at the Battle of Mud and Flame. Most of the Western-Reach camp, with all the equipment and the followers, had been only evacuated partially in haste and urgency, and nobody doubted the Baratheons soldiers were wealthier than they were a fortnight ago. Of the 15 000 men forming the essential of the equipped army, Ser Lyle had now a bit less than 3 200 men answering to his orders. There were of course many more Reachers and Westerners who had survived the battle, but most were dispersed and had lost all motivation to fight again. Some, like the men sworn to House Tarly of Horn Hill, agreed between themselves that the agreement between House Lannister their House was null and void. Dozens of Reachers knights and men-at-arms abandoned the fight to go home. The bannersmen of House Tarly's new mission was to bring back the Valyrian sword Heartsbane to Horn Hill. Some Westerners, feeling the wind was blowing on the wrong direction, deserted and tried to find a brighter future elsewhere.

The retreat through the Kingswood, as a result, was long and heartbreaking. The number of casualties rose day by day, as the healers and maesters were definitely in too short numbers to deal with all the wounded warriors. The little fact that Ser Rolland Storm and his raiding force were in hot pursuit also hurt: too often a man who walked too far away from the main camp was never seen again, like the darkness (or a Baratheon axe) had cut them down. A week after the disastrous battle, 300 men under Lord Martyn Ferren were surprised trying to reform their ranks by the troops of Ser Alyn Estermont near the Wendwater. Despite the parity in numbers of both opponents, the result was a one-sided fight, as the Western force dispersed itself at the view of the enemy. The Stormlanders had only to hunt the fleeing warriors, with only Lord Ferren trying to resist and be slain by an Estermont knight. This small skirmish was not an isolated case. Dispersed, out of touch with their high command, the small groups of Lannister soldiers were extremely tempting targets for the Baratheon army following them. If the retreating soldiers had been able to gather again, the Western infantrymen could have posed as a credible threat but it didn't happen. The rains were now worse than ever, and the drenched and defeated soldiers had lost all fighting spirit and hope. The prime example was symbolised by the Mountain's men: reviled, hated and feared among all the Westerosi kingdoms, the band of rapists and murderers who had killed and plundered so many towns and villages numbered now less than a dozen. At their head was the monster himself, Gregor Clegane, whose continued life was a curse and a miracle in itself. Wounded at the Wendwater, the colossal murderer had been badly burned at Bronzegate when Melisandre of Asshai unleashed her magical powers. The Mountain had somehow been left alive, but his face now presented a certain resemblance to his younger brother Sandor 'the Hound' Clegane. The burning wounds were also rumoured to cover a large part of his body, as the Mountain refused to take off his massive armour after the battle. With a smell of putrefaction following the group, many whispered the man in the armour was already dead . On the other hand, it was not like it mattered in the end. Hunted by Stormlords eager for revenge now that the sword was in the other's hand, the Mountain's men and their infamous leader were pursued and exterminated to the last man in the Kingswood. Gregor Clegane himself, agonising in sinister yells, was dismembered like an animal, with twenty Baratheon soldiers cutting him in a hundred pieces which were then burned to eradicate all supposed evilness. This action, while one of the most reported due to the infamy brought by the Mountain, was far from the only one. Hundreds of Western common soldiers perished in the dark woods, pursued by a relentless enemy. The sights of flames in the distance, after Bronzegate, were now an approved method to plunge the survivors of this disaster into despair and fear.

After the Lannister's army reached the intersection of the Rose Road and the Kingsroad, the Baratheon pursuit steadily diminished, Stannis's forces taking the opportunity to slow the rhythm of their operations and reform their forces. While it was greeted with a certain sense of relief by Ser Lyle Crakehall and his officers, it was also a painful reminder how deep the Lannister debacle had been. The main Lion's force, once gathered on the road, numbered around 3000 men. This number would grow until the arrival at King's Landing (small isolated forces had managed to regroup and survive ) ,but Lyle's force never numbered more than a quarter of the total force Tywin Lannister had left the capital with . Speaking of the Lord of Casterly Rock, Lord Tywin Lannister's health was becoming worse. The Lord Paramount of the Westerlands had regained consciousness, but the wound at his right leg had been infected, forcing the surgeons to remove the remnants of the leg completely. The Old Lion was more often than not in a delirious state due to the fever, giving orders to troops which had been lost more than a year ago, calling for his wife, asking for his sons. The Lord of Casterly Rock was in no condition to counter the loss of moral inside his own ranks .Seeing the Red Keep in these conditions was a welcome relief for the battered survivors of the Stormlands Campaign. Unfortunately, they had just traded the Stag for an even worse problem. The Second Battle of King's Landing was about to begin...


	27. The Fall of the Lions

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. Joffrey's death would have been much more painful than the one he received in canon. And I wouldn't try to redeem Jaime Lannister of all people.

Note: for an unknown reason, my count of views for this story stopped at 30000+. Still with more than one hundred reviews, I am really pleased by the numbers of readers who are interested by my fan fiction.

raw666: The vale and Dorne are indeed going to be involved. Although perhaps not in the way you imagine...

X59: The chances of Jaime fighting with Robb are pretty much non-existent. Jaime is not somebody who has a high reputation of honour. Very few Northern or Riverlands soldiers would trust him not to betray them at the earliest opportunity. In general, the lack of trust all the Great Houses feel towards the Lannisters is a great problem for the Westerners.

Oberyn will certainly throw a line "We had our revenge by outliving them! Great job, brother!"

Revan3363: Thanks!

Master of Dragons God: The Lions have a few great battles to fight, and some members will continue to live and resist in their own way. But yes, the power of the Lannisters wanes...

Guest: It is coming...

Paul: House Martell don't like the Baratheons at all. Yes, Stannis did nothing to cause Elia Martell death; Stannis is still however a Baratheon and his claim to the throne was paid by the corpses of Elia Martell's children. There is no love between Storm's End and Sunspear.

The bannersmen of the North are going to appear again don't worry.

Right now, Littlefinger is a diplomat for the Lannisters at Highgarden. By the way the wind is right now blowing, he will stay there for a not insignificant period of time.

Some persons you quoted are going to live. Also, some are fated to die...

A few Western lords will swear allegiance to the North. Due to a major event, however, the fact some lords and knights stayed loyal is going to doom them.

As for the battle and the death of Walder Rivers, well, no battle is completely different and this one is no exception, especially when there are 3 000 more Freys in this battle (in canon there was only the Frey cavalry).

Good remark on Lord Karstark's mental health. The fact Jaime Lannister has been also thoroughly humiliated has helped too.

As for whom attacks King's Landing, answer in the next two chapters...

Matt Quinn: Well Tywin is delirious... For all we know he may want Tyrion to come to him to hang him (grin).

As for Clegane, yes this death was particularly justified. This monster in human clothes deserves to suffer in the Seven Hells...

 **The Fall of the Lions**

 **Prelude to the Battle Part I**

 _"My sweet sister never forgets a slight, real or imagined. I have no doubt she already plan to dismiss me from my post of Master of Coin. Her greed for power will tolerate nothing else. "Tyrion_ Lannister, 300AC.

 _"A Lion does not bother about the sheep's opinion."_ Cersei Lannister, 300AC.

With the departure of Lord Tywin Lannister for the Stormlands, life in the most populous city of Westeros tried to find again a sense of normality. It failed. Far from improving the spirits of the common inhabitant, the Old Lion's departure was seen in the modest quarters of the capital as a chance to get rid of the Lannisters still present in the city. Treason was plotted at each corner of a street, and sharp objects were assembled for rebellion. Unfortunately, most of these insurrection attempts went nowhere. After the battle fought in the streets of the capital, most of the reigning council had judged attempting to befriend or ally with the common folk was a pointless exercise, and the men in command of King's Landing had the resources of Lord Varys, Master of Whisperers, to draw on. Each day after the Lannister's army left, it was on average three Kingslanders who were executed on the charge of treason by the Lannister regime serving King Tommen I. On an interesting note, after less than a fortnight asking for food in front of the Red Keep was also considered treason. The Roseroad, while still officially reopened to the Reach merchants, wasn't delivering enough supplies, not with Ser Davos Seaworth and the remnants of Stannis's fleet patrolling Blackwater Bay, the Northern armies holding the Riverlands and the capital's surroundings ravaged by the previous battle. The wealthiest people of the city had no problem of alimentation, but many refugees were still on the brink of starvation.

This was acknowledged by all witnesses as a time of darkness for the less favoured individuals living in King's Landing. Without Lord Tywin Lannister and Lord Randyll Tarly present, the Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister had taken the lead of the Small Council, and the general opinion in the streets was that the woman was completely unskilled for the position. Tyrion 'the Imp' Lannister , Master of Coin , and Lord Addam Marbrand , Commander of the City Watch were competent individuals , but were plagued with problems in their respective positions , most of those generated by the last battle . However, no one could say there was anything competent in the replacements ordered by the Queen-Regent. The new Hand of the King (or Acting Hand as Lord Tywin held the position ) was Lord Orton Merryweather , a man returned from exile viewed by the majority as a non-entity .Lord Gyles Rosby , an old and sickly man , was the new Master of Laws . Ser Lancel Lannister, eldest son of the late Ser Kevan Lannister, was named Master-at-Arms of the Red Keep. Lord Varys and the Grand Maester Pycelle, the two last original members of the 298AC's council, completed the great offices . Needless to say, this new council revealed itself even more tyrannical than the one who had sat during the short reign of Joffrey I Baratheon. As said before, the Queen-Regent and her allies did not hesitate to punish any rumours of sedition and treason in blood and execution. Hundreds of deaths were reported during this period, Lannister knights under Ser Lancel Lannister having no hesitation or remorse to lead raids in the impoverished sectors of the capital and cutting down any signs of agitation.

This was bad enough, but soon it grew worse. In order to compensate for the major losses the Goldcloaks had taken during the recent military action, the Small Council by the voice of Lord Merryweather began to call to arms the Crownlords. In theory, this measure was somewhat logical. In practise, it was a major mistake. Since the beginning of the conflict, a minimum of one Crownlord in four had seen its lands ravaged by men like Gregor Clegane or Amory Lorch. These lords, when they were still alive, would not even deign to answer the summons. For those who did, the warriors answering were limited to House Hayford, House Rosby, House Stokeworth and House Rykker . Barely more than 2 000 men, and very few of them were cavalry of any sort. Even then, this move was opposed by Tyrion Lannister, who widely proclaimed they had not the money to pay and supply these unmotivated and inexperienced troops. Lord Addam Marbrand, in charge of the capital defences, revealed himself also against this strategy which made the northern approaches of the capital very vulnerable. Lord Addam, due to the fact he was an appointment of Lord Tywin's Lannister, was able to keep his post. Tyrion Lannister did not, and it was not a surprise to the court, as the hate between the 'Imp' and the Queen-Regent was evident even for a foreign eye. Lord Renfred Rykker was named soon after as the new Master of Coin.

It was the beginning of a series of diplomatic errors which made the financial cause of King Tommen I Baratheon hopeless. Wanting to rebuild the walls, the defences, and the capital's fleet, the Queen-Regent ordered her new council member to admit for a royal audience the new emissary of the Iron Bank. The message of the Westerosi council was simple: all payments to the banks of Braavos were cancelled until the end of the conflict. This would have soon huge economic consequences for the future of the Seven Kingdoms, but the Iron Bank could hardly say they were the only ones concerned: the Faith of Seven emissaries received the same message the day after. The Braavosi banker immediately began to recall back all the loans due to the Iron Bank in the city as retaliation, generating further agitation and launching a new cycle of Lannister reprisals. "The Iron Bank will have its due" affirmed the banker Noho Dimittis before leaving the capital. "But we have no gold!" was Lord Rykker's last reported answer.

The finance issues, however, soon became the cadet of the Royal Council's problems. From the Stormlands, desperate soldiers began to arrive in groups of twenty or thirty. Hungry, speaking tales of magic, sorcery mud and flames. Defeated. Telling the right from the wrong was a difficult task, but it was rapidly evident a monumental disaster had happened in the South. Five days after the first arrival, Ser Lyle Crakehall and 3 000 soldiers arrived, with a wounded Lord Tywin Lannister. To say the shock generated by the defeat at Bronzegate was huge was no understatement. Panic spread in the streets of the capital. With rumours of sorcery by the hundreds, denunciations began, which killed dozens of people whose only crime was to be accused of practising magic. The High Septon himself, who had gone out of the High Sept of Baelor to calm the crowd, was stabbed to death by fanatics. The streets were covered in blood and chaos reigned in the greatest city of the Seven Kingdoms. Most of the major avenues were deserted by the Gold Cloaks and the Lannister soldiers: those had tried to restore order were now lying dismembered in the gutters.

The Queen-Regent and her councillors, barricaded in the Red Keep, did nothing to stop this spectacle of madness. Even when the new groups of religious fanatics having taken control of the Great Sept elected the man known as the High Justicar in defiance of centuries of Faith traditions (by all rights it was the Most Devout who had to elect the new High Septon but those had been among the first to be killed), the soldiers of King Tommen I did not intervene. The reasons advanced for this absence of action were much discussed by the maesters and the historians, but most agree to this day it was most likely the void of leadership, with an indisposed Tywin Lannister, which explicated the political paralysis. Anyway, in all probability, it would not have solved anything in the long term. The population was enraged beyond measure, angry for vengeance, hungry for food and ready to defend their homes against Lannister vileness and foreign sorcery .The Westerlands infantry which could have intervened had died at the hands of the Baratheons bannersmen. But Stannis's forces and Melisandre of Asshai weren't King's Landing only problem anymore. From the North a massive army approached, crushing all opposition in the defenceless Crownlands. And at night, loud howls started to be heard in the distance. The direwolves were here, and winter was coming...


	28. The Direwolf at the Gate

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I am not trying like a certain author to engineer the fall of some protagonists in a sort and unlikely fashion.

raw666: Robb won't effectively try to rule the Seven Kingdoms as he has not the manpower to do it. But he has not to "bait" other pretenders with the capital to enforce the Kingdom of the North and the Riverlands. By now, most of the other kingdoms are in the same situation and try to hold their forces together for a last great campaign. But in the darkness other forces have been put into movement...

Cancer-Chris: the Northmen arrive in this chapter, and they have a furious envy of battle...

X59: Indeed, there are going to be four major factions in this battle (and plenty of minor ones). Like every battle inside a city, there's going to be a lot of chaos, due to the lack of leadership provided by some leaders...

The Iron Bank will not be responsible for the Eight King, though you're right they won't be happy to see all the debt which goes with the Iron throne go up in smoke. They may jump up on the occasion to recoup some of their monetary losses by hiring mercenaries and making them cross the Narrow Sea.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks!

Guest: Well, the direwolves would have howled no matter what. But Robb figured that since he could do nothing to convince the wolves to be silent, he might at least use it as a tool to break the enemy moral...

toastmesiter: Thanks for the support and reading my story. I always felt sorry one of the most badass army of Westeros fell to betrayal and treason, and not in battle. That doesn't mean the Starks and the Riverlands are completely saved of course. But they won't be massacred by Freys and Lannisters in this story.

Paul: No, Lancel is still a Lannister knight and he's very far from redemption, being an arrogant young man who enjoys slaughtering the smallfolk of King's Landing. Lysa Arryn's fate will be an interesting thing, and will appear once the King's Landing arc is fully finished. I don't want to spoil things on it, sorry.

No, Littlefinger full role will never be entirely confirmed. Oh, major lords and key characters will have proof of some awful acts on his part, but they will never know the full truth. Short Littlefinger himself, no one is really able to do that and this confession will never come.

The High Sparrow is NOT the High Justicar. Both are religious fanatics, but the Justicar is far less subtle in his military acts...

Victarion is going to go to the East in search of Daenerys, but the timing will change. Dagmer Cleftjaw wasn't given a solo commend in this story, and so for the moment is largely forgotten by those historians who are writing the books.

 **The Direwolf at the Gate**

 **Prelude to the Battle Part II**

 _"If we send someone to negotiate, choose someone you don't care about. The soldiers outside look furious and bloodthirsty. "_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

 _"All the heretics must die."_ High Septon Justicar, 300AC.

 _"If I was a betting man, I wouldn't bet on the Lannisters right now"_ Petyr 'Littlefinger ' Baelish 300AC.

When Lord Tywin Lannister began his last campaign to finish Stannis Baratheon's cause, the Lord of Casterly Rock had left his rear terribly vulnerable. For most of the lords and knights having assisted and written about this period of the Eight King's war, the Lord paramount of the Westerlands made several assumptions which turned disastrous. First, that the troops left in the Westerlands and the Riverlands (in the case of the latter, mainly composed of sellswords) would harry and slow down the movements of the Northern troops. Secondly, that the lords and nobility of the Crownlands would fight for the Lannisters should King Robb Stark and his troops advance southwards. And finally, it was likely Lord Tywin assumed his children and bannersmen left at King's Landing would provide wise governance and resists any attempt made by an enemy army to storm the capital. In the end, all of those assumptions revealed themselves flawed. Most of the Essossi sellswords, loyal to their reputation of unsavoury characters, turned cloak and rally to the King in the North's side. Many of them would participate in various massacres happening in the Westerlands. Apart from Lord Rosby, Lord Stokeworth and Lord Rykker, the number of Crownlords who supported the Lions in one way or another was dangerously close to zero. Concerning the Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister's conception of politics and governance, the less said the better. To sum up the situation, it was a disaster for the Lannisters ... and King Robb Stark had not yet attacked.

In the mean time, the "Young Wolf" was reforming his forces. The cavalry of Karhold and most of the former mercenaries were sent in the Westerlands, where they would unleash all their fury. With so many fronts, King Robb Stark divided once again his troops. Nearly 3 000 men under Lord Galbart Glover and Robett Glover were going back home to defend the North against the wildlings, the Ironborn reavers and all the other possible threats. Princess Arya Stark, no longer in Lannister's captivity, was supposed to go with them as far as Winterfell. At the same time, a large part of the Riverlands infantry and cavalry was tasked to eliminate the diverse bands of cutthroats plaguing their lands and to block every access leading to the Golden Tooth. Command of these men was given to Lord Tytos Blackwood. Once these diversions in fighting manpower were done, King Robb Stark was left with approximately 12 000 men. But this time, it was not a simple castle or any Western town which was targeted. It was King's Landing. The king in the North's strategy could be considered as really aggressive. In simple terms, a large pincer movement had been decided. While the Northern cavalry (roughly 4 000 men ) would go southwards towards the Stony Sept and Atranta , crushing the Lannister remnants in the area , the Northern and Riverlands infantry available would follow the River Road and then the Kingsroad and besiege the capital . This strategy obvious's goal was to force the Lannisters and the Crown lands to disperse their last forces between two fronts and crush them separately. The Northern cavalry would then proceed to cut the Gold Road permanently and participate in the siege of the capital. Another minor detachment was also prepared to retake Maidenpool and secure the coast up to Duskendale, if it proved necessary. Lord Roose Bolton, who had himself proved too cautious and indecisive, was given this task. King Robb Stark took the command of the cavalry, while Lord Jason Mallister led the infantry.

The plan in itself proved a triumphant success, but to be fair the Westerosi and Essossi historians have always considered anything but a Northern victory would have proved amazing. Most of the Crownlands soldiers who should have tried to stop this offensive were dead or trying their best to ignore the thousands of soldiers passing near their homes. The men loyal to the Lannisters in the Riverlands were now numbering less than two thousand, and they were dispersed over a very large area. Most of them chose to flee towards the Reach when the outcome became limpid. Lord Roose Bolton forced to surrender Maidenpool and Duskendale without resistance (though the Dun Fort continued to resist and had to be besieged). Lord Jason Mallister conquered the Antlers, Sow's Horn and then Stokeworth and Hayford. With the fall of this last castle, situated half a day's north of the capital, all the northern defences of King's Landing had disappeared, most of them without any kind of resistance. Most attributed this fiasco afterwards to the governance of the Queen-Regent, but the answer was more complex. During the time the Lannister army was stationed at Harrenhal, Lord Tywin Lannister had heavily raided the ravens of every House which had the bad luck to be in the vicinity of Harren's folly. As a result, informing the capital proved to be impossible. To make a bad situation worse, many of the Crownlands's keeps had been burned at least once by the unlamented Ser Amory Lorch or Ser Gregor Clegane. The fall of Hayford, however, could not be ignored, not with hundreds of refugees fleeing the advance of the eagle's banners. Lord Mallister was at the gates of King's landing ... but there still was no reaction coming from the Lannister. The arrival of King Robb Stark and the cavalry at Hayford five days later didn't change that fact. But once the Northerners and the Riverlanders approached the first habitations surrounding the capital, they began to realise the true reason they had been unopposed. From the largest city of the Seven Kingdoms, screams were resonating. Thousands of screams. Large banners showing seven-pointed stars were raised in the wind, Faith military symbols which had been forbidden when Maegor the Cruel and Jaehaerys the Conciliator disbanded the Faith Militant. On the other side of the Blackwater, another army was preparing to cross, under the banners of the Stag and the Burning Heart. Three religions. Three kings. All was in place for the Second Battle of King's Landing. But Westerosi history would remember it under another name. The Battle of the Four Armies...


	29. Godslayer

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I am also writing much more quickly than a certain author.

raw666: Indeed, in theory, Robb and Stannis could be great allies, the two according great importance on duty. Alas, it is not going to happen. Stannis feels the crown of Westeros is his duty to gain, and he can't imagine letting go half of the kingdom to form the "Kingdom of the North and the Trident". Not only it would create a bad precedent, but with a potentially hostile Reach on his flanks, Stannis must gain more kingdoms to his cause or his possessions will be in danger.

Cancer-Chris: Nice to see I managed to surprise some readers (grin).

X59: Yes, the Battle of the Four Armies begins in this chapter. Arya will appear in the aftermath, you will see. As for Tywin, there was never any question he was arrogant and too full of himself. With the tide of events going against him in this story, you realise he had a lot of luck in the books to go away with the things he did.

Master of Dragons God: The cavalry is coming, although a bit late due to some issues on ...

Guest: Bolton has not done any (overt) betrayal right now. With the North winning, it would be extremely stupid of him to do so (he would have to deal with plenty of angry Northern lords in the aftermath).

Sorry, but the people of King's Landing are going to suffer. Not only a lot are embracing religious fanaticism as a solution to their problem, but with so many troops around King's Landing, blood is going to flow in huge quantities.

What happens on the Wall and beyond will be told in a chapter. For the moment, let's say there are a few modifications to GRRM's story.

Revan3363: Thanks for the support! The Battle of the Four Armies is coming.

Matt Quinn: Glad you like it!

Paul: Right now, 45 chapters of this story have been written. I can assure you I'm still very far from the end. Or at least what will be the end of the war, with peace returning to the Seven kingdoms. Truthfully, I have no idea how many chapters this story will last right now. I have a rough scenario in mind, but I don't know exactly how much time I will need to arrive there. One thing I can promise: this story will be completed. One way or another. Currently, I write one chapter per week. As for the locations you described, they will appear as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

Radio Free Death: I corrected it in the last chapters. Alas, I have not the time nor the motivation to change the first ones.

 **Godslayer**

 **The Battle of the Four Armies Part I**

 _"I am the High Septon! I speak for the Seven here on this Earth! Strike me and you strike the Gods themselves! "_ High Septon Justicar, 300AC.

 _"I am the Godslayer."_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

When the Second Battle of King's Landing is mentioned today, one of the first questions to be debated was the mental sanity of Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister. Mere days before the great battle, the Lannister queen made the fateful decision to authorise the new High Septon to reform the Faith Militant. Even considering the strategic and tactical situation, all the students of history acknowledged it was one of Queen Cersei's worst mistakes. First, it was increasingly evident the Lannister cause was losing quite badly the war. In these circumstances, it would have been prudent not to antagonise the potential winners when the time came to sit at the peace talks. Secondly, it was a sign of weakness. The High Septon Justicar had gained control of most of the capital when the Faith had not technically the right to carry weapons; it would have been intelligent not to legalise this political and military humiliation.

Moreover, neither of the two kings sitting outside King's Landing was very likely to agree with the reformation of a religious order known for his fanatism. King Stannis was following R'hllor. King Robb was praying the Old Gods. None of the two monarchs was going to tolerate a crowd of monks which at best would call them illegitimate. By abolishing a single edict, the Queen-Regent had just made unavoidable a sack and a massacre inside the city. With somewhere between 17 000 and 25 000 Poor Fellows recruited, the walls of King's Landing could be adequately manned. But at what cost?

While the army of the North were arriving and the Lannisters were losing their last remnants of power, Stannis Baratheon had not stayed inactive. The Baratheon monarch had built a multitude of small craft to cross the Blackwater, along with seven trebuchets (a point the Faith completely missed), many scaling ladders and battering rams.

Two days after the King in the North's arrival, the master of Storm's End and Dragonstone launched his assault in the first lights of the day. A first wave of 500 men crossed the Blackwater, trying to take by surprise the defenders. If so, it manifestly failed. A large party of Poor Fellows were in control of the Mud Gate, and seeing heretics charge their positions, sallied out while letting the reserves prepare the scorpions and the ballista. To put it bluntly, it was a picture of horror. The Stormlanders under Ser Rolland Storm who went in the first wave were only 500 , outnumbered eight to one by the followers of the Seven , but the Stormlanders were veterans , survivors of multiple and terrible battles like First King's Landing and Bronzegate . In comparison ,the Poor Fellows had no military experience , no discipline and often no armour or conventional weapons , fighting with light bows , crude maces , cudgels , axes and other improvised man-killing objects . Ser Rolland Storm's men took heavy casualties, losing half of their numbers in less than an hour, but they held enough for 500 more men to arrive, and for each of the Stormlanders who fell, four or five Poor Fellows went down too. The tenacity (and the fanaticism) of the warriors following the High Septon was to be admired, but hour after hour it was evident the cause was lost. The northern bank of the Blackwater saw hundreds of Baratheons soldiers landing, and the Poor Fellows who tried to repulse the warriors were butchered by the hundreds. The large trebuchets on the southern bank were also causing large destruction, knocking off the defender's siege engines, raving the ramparts, starting fires inside the city, unleashing panic and fear. And it was just the Southern assault.

On the other side of the city, the Northern and the Riverlanders troops were also on the move. The soldiers of King Robb Stark had had less time to build siege engines, ladders and ram for the assault, but unlike King Stannis, they were on a side Tyrion Lannister and his commanders had made very little preparation before the First Battle of King's Landing (said preparations consisting in razing and burning the houses too close to the walls). As a result, it allowed most of the Stark's vanguard to use cover to advance to the Old Gate, which had been designed as the primary objective. Too predictably, a large force of Poor Fellows sallied out the gate in question when it became clear the battering rams were going to crush the Old Gate. However, whoever the commander of the Faith was had never fought a battle. Unlike Stannis Baratheon troops, Robb Stark's main force wasn't blocked behind a river, forced to cross in small groups. Virtually all the army could be brought to the front, if it was needed ... and indeed it was. The 5 000 or so Poor Fellows who guarded the gate received the furious charge of hundreds of Northmen, led by Lord Jon 'Greatjon' Umber. The lord of Last Hearth by all accounts , made a mountain of corpses fighting his way to the Old Gate , all the while Mormonts , Mallisters and Brackens men were scaling the walls , dismantling the scorpions , pulverising the ballista , turning oil and all the military supplies against their former masters .

By the time the sun reached the zenith, it was clear King's Landing was lost. The Old Gate had fallen to the Northern warriors and the Mud Gate barring a miracle would not last five more minutes. Until then, the Lannisters troops had shone by their absence on the battlefield. But this was about to change. Upon hearing the gates were about to be breached, Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister totally lost her mind and broke the status quo.

What exactly made the Queen-Regent act like she did remain a mystery to this day? However, historians were able to make a certain number of statements. First, the Queen-Regent was more and more looking like her deceased husband Robert I, always drinking, whoring, and refusing to take any logical decisions to govern the realm. Secondly, there is a theory that the Red Keep received at the moment the battle was beginning a raven from Dorne. Apparently said bird was carrying the news of Princess Myrcella Baratheon's death. While it was never confirmed afterwards (due to the heavy battle damage), the combined news of her daughter's death and the apparent defeat of the Faith were enough to send Cersei Lannister into madness and cruelty. If the Lannisters were about to lose, then the Queen-Regent intended for everyone to lose. The Lannister troops garrisoned at the Lion Gate, the Gate of the Gods and the Red Keep received direct orders to charge into battle. And to prove the "victory or death" point, the mad Lioness delivered all her hostages in the care of the High Septon including Sansa Stark.

This proved terribly ill-advised to say the least. The Western men present at King's Landing were not suicidal idiots, and their loyalty following the First Battle of King's Landing and the Battle of Bronzegate had been in free fall. Most of them had not been paid since a long time, and even the men loving to kill on a battlefield were tired to kill the very people who were supposed to be on their side. Supporting religious fanatics was unpopular in the ranks and did not raise any enthusiasm. So when Tyrion 'the Imp' Lannister rushed out of a tavern shouting "With me Lions!" the men of the West knew in an instant changed their allegiance (at least three establishments today claim their tavern was the one where Tyrion Lannister was hiding). This was the legend. More realistically, men like Lord Addam Marbrand and Ser Lyle Crakehall had been disgusted by Cersei Lannister's abuse of power, and rallied to the man (or half-man ) they saw as legitimate Lord of Casterly Rock (Tywin Lannister being unconscious and unlikely to remain alive ).

For the strategic situation, it could not be worse. Led by Tyrion Lannister, more than 2 000 Westernlanders fought their way to the Great Sept of Baelor, hoping to rescue the hostages before the High Septon executed them. In the Red Keep, men loyal to Cersei Lannister fought those loyal to the Imp. The carnage was total. The Baratheons and Starks troops were inside the city, fighting their way across each house, each street and hundreds of Poor Fellows and Warrior's Sons. Visenya's and Aegon's hill were aflame. Lannisters and Faith warriors fought each other. Northerners and Riverlanders fought the Faith and the Lannisters. Stormlanders did the same thing, and were burning half of Fishmonger's square and the street of steel along the way. Hours passed, and the armies of the Stag and the Wolf slowly but relentlessly advanced in the city, pouring rivers of blood upon the streets. And Tyrion Lannister, Ser Lyle Crakehall and 800 Westernlanders reached the white marble plaza surrounding the Great Sept. The plaza and it surroundings were paintings of horror. Most of the Most Devout and common folk having spoken against the High Septon had been hanged, dismembered. The marble was black with dried blood. The smell was horrible and Ser Podrick Payne, Tyrion Lannister's squire, would later describe it as "one of the Seven Hells". Slaying dozens of Poor Fellows, the warriors loyal to the Imp destroyed the doors of the Sept and rushed inside, killing every enemy who blocked their way. The Hall of the Lamps was ravaged by the fighting and most of the altars, statues and others religious symbols were covered in gore or torn apart. Tyrion Lannister arrived in time to kill the High Septon himself with an axe strike which crushed High Septon Justicar's skull and save his wife Sansa Stark. But for many of the Stormlanders and Reachers who had been imprisoned, it was too late. As it would became clear after the battle, quite a few lords and knights had suffered horrible deaths, being burned alive (and some whispered the use of wildfire had sometimes played a role).

The High Septon was dead, but his sinister deeds were not at an end. All over the city, hundreds of fanatics and desperate men continued to fight. But with the end of the day, another problem was starting to appear: far from cooperating to take the Red Keep, King Stannis Baratheon and King Robb Stark troops refocused their military attention on each other. Thousands of battle-hardened veterans fought in the alleys and the streets of the capital, at the light of the fire and the wildfire. A horrible spectacle, to decide who would sit the Iron Throne once for all...


	30. Realm of shadows

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. Too many characters who are still clinging to life when they should have died years ago.

raw666: Your points about Houses being extinct and the Faith losing its power in the future are well-done. Indeed when the conflict is finally going to die down (and for those who wonder, we are far from that point) the order of things on Westeros will have been smashed, burnt or completely annihilated. The old Westeros will be no more, that's a certainty. The question is what will replace it...

Cancer-Chris: The second part is coming right now, though it is not the complete end of the action...

X59: Oh, they were not really loyal to Cersei, but rather to Tywin Lannister. And as Cersei controlled the access to her father's room, well... let's say it gave her an advantage in controlling the flow of information shall we say?

A letter from Dorne reported Myrcella dead. Is it the truth or a hoax? We will see...

Tyrion saving Sansa is the only thing which indeed will save him from the wrath of the North. And yes, there is going to be a serious backlash once the war is over against the Faith of Seven. In the short term, the realm is at war, and the news travel slowly. In the long term, the Faith is going to have to buy a new reputation and a new doctrine, as several thousand persons aren't exactly in love with this religion right now.

Thanks again for following my story, and yes I recommend _Robb returns_ to those who are fan of ASOIAF fanfiction.

Master of Dragons God, Revan3363, darthas: Thanks for having appreciated this chapter at his just valour.

Guest: It's coming...

Matt Quinn: Sure Stannis is an atheist. But as few of his subordinates are in his complete confidence, few historians will be aware of that fact, though some will have their doubts about his religious positions.

Tyrion is going to have a few moments of awesome before the end of this story (grin).

Paul: Actually, I killed Bryce Caron in chapter 16, in the third part of the First Battle of King's Landing. As a result, Rolland Storm is a strong contender for the title of lord of Nightsong if Stannis wants to legitimise him.

Aside from that, Stannis learnt his lesson with the Florents: it's not because a lord is politically powerful it's a good idea to put him in command of a critical part of your forces. Rolland Storm, a very capable warrior, has thus earned the right to lead the vanguard.

The High Septon Justicar will not be mourned. In fact, several kings in the future will threaten to do "a new Justicar" when septons will be a bit too arrogant for their own good.

Treebrooke: Thanks for the support! I must admit for the moment I'm not thinking in publishing anything, though that might change in the future.

And now the chapter...

 **Realm of shadows**

 **The Battle of the Four Armies Part II**

 _"Kill the witch! Kill the witch now! "_ Ser Wendel Manderly, 300AC.

 _"What are you doing? Run! Run! Run! "_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

The day was almost over. The sun was finally setting over Blackwater Bay. But the Second Battle of King's Landing was not finished. In the light of the flames, soldiers of every army present continued to fight. For the soldiers of the Faith, the issue could only be described as desperate. The elite of their forces, more than 20 000 Poor Fellows and 500 Warrior's Sons, had been annihilated fighting the Baratheon and the Stark forces. Their leadership and their base on Visenya's Hill had been destroyed by Tyrion Lannister and his supporters. In comparison, the strategic situation of King Stannis 'army was not that bad. But it was not that good either. At the start of the battle, the forces of Reachlords, Narrow Sea Lords and Stormlords under the elder Baratheon had numbered less than 9000, which meant they were already outnumbered by everyone except the Lannister remnants. And it had not gotten better after a day of battle. Whereas the Northern soldiers had managed to concentrate and overwhelm the forces defending the Old Gate, the soldiers following R'hllor had suffered heavy casualties by crossing piecemeal the Blackwater. One thousand men (or close enough to make no difference) had died to reach the Mud Gate. However, that wasn't the decisive factor. The crucial point was that unlike the Stormlords, King Robb Stark had cavalry under his command. More than 4 000 cavalrymen in fact. And unlike the horses owned by King Stannis, the mounted knights, freeriders and lords were not on the other side of the river. In the main avenues of King's Landing, the charges of the Northern and Riverlander cavalry were impossible to stop for the battered Stormlanders. The infantry of King Stannis was forced to withdraw.

In a night lightened by the burning houses of the capital, Stannis Baratheon found himself in a dilemma. Most of the forces he had sent into the city had dispersed in Flea Bottom or the River Rows, confident the mounted troops of Robb Stark could not follow them. They were right, but nothing was stopping the Northern infantry to come after them, and the Kingslanders living there had developed murderous feeling over the last months. Soon, the unsavoury areas of the capital were filled with corpses, each house was disputed, and the atrocities committed made even hard-battered veterans flinch at the sights. As a consequence, King Stannis hesitated. The Baratheon king had less than 2 000 fighting men with him on the southern bank. Crossing could change the rapport of strength, but then if things went badly his army would be completely destroyed. At the same time, the younger brother of Robert Baratheon was also the receiver of Melisandre of Asshai's supplications, who begged him to let her burn prisoners. In the end Stannis Baratheon relented. One thousand men, Melisandre of Asshai and all the Lannisters and Westerners prisoners made in the Stormlands campaign crossed the Blackwater. Soon the prisoners were burning alive, and the same sorcery which had won the day at Bronzegate by shadows and flame started to cut down enemies in King's Landing. The efficiencies of the magical attacks, however, stayed small-scaled and limited in the great scheme of the battle. While the shadow warriors revealed themselves invincible against conventional weapons, there were too few of them, the city of King's Landing was too huge and the Stark, Lannister and Faith forces in the city too dispersed for the magical abominations to win the night. That and Manderly archers had reached the southern ramparts, delivering a rain of arrows on Melisandre of Asshai and her followers. The Red witch herself took an arrow in the arm and had to retreat outside bow range, a fact which undoubtedly decreased the power and the influence of the magical shadows on the course of the battle.

While the Starks and the Baratheons settled their differences on the battlefield, the Lannister civil war in the Red Keep had finally ended. Unlike in the streets of the capital itself (or more exactly in the garrisons of the Lion's Gate and the King's Gate the Lannisters still controlled) where Tyrion Lannister's supporters had purged the men following the Queen-Regent, the opposite had happened in the Red Keep. Under the command of Ser Lancel Lannister, the Westerners still recognising the authority of Queen Cersei had won, but it had not been without a price. No one would even discover how many soldiers had died in the citadel built by Maegor, but the number of casualties had certainly not been low. Realising there was very little chance the victorious side would be inclined to spare them, the surviving Lannisters, including Ser Lancel, King Tommen and Queen- Regent Cersei escaped by one of the dozens of secret passages under the Red Keep. While it was clearly a wise decision given the rapport of strength (not counting the Kingsguard, estimates varied from twenty to forty men-at-arms still able to hold a sword), it would be seen in the future as a cowardly and shameful escape, especially as most of the chaos done in the capital during the last two years was the fault of the Baratheon-Lannister faction. It was thus clearly poetic that luck abandoned the band of escapees at one moment or another. Initially, the group had been led by Varys, Master of Whisperers himself, but it appeared that in one instant the eunuch disappeared. Volatilised. Without anyone knowing the maze under the capital, the royal party was unable to find its way out, and had to randomly try to guess what path was the correct one. Maybe there was one. But if there had been a means to escape, King Tommen and his bodyguards didn't find it.

While the Lannisters remnants were searching their salvation underground, the night had passed over their heads. And it had been a bloodbath. Despite the heroic (or put in another point of view, fanatic) efforts of the Faith warriors and the Stormlanders, the Northern and Riverlander army had invested King's Landing. The infantry under the command of Lord Jason Mallister controlled totally three gates: the Old Gate, the Gate of the Gods and the Dragon Gate. The core of the resistance was now primarily consisting in Tyrion Lannister, Ser Lyle Crakehall and Lord Addam Marbrand, retrenched on Visenya's Hill, protecting thousands of women and children having fled their homes and now refugees in the bloodied and desecrated Great Sept of Baelor. The situation was dire for the "Godslayer Imp": encircled, outnumbered and with no hope of rescue: the remnants of Stannis Baratheon's troops had obviously recognised the battle was lost and crossed back (once again) the Blackwater in the other direction. If one didn't count the Great Sept of Baelor, the only stronghold of resistance was the Red Keep. And no one was under any illusion: the night was almost over, the sun was going to reappear, and the final assault would finally begin.

It was at everyone's surprise , then , that the Royal party of the Queen-Regent , the King and his guards emerged on Visenya's Hill by a secret passage , one no septon , septa or common folk had ever managed to discover . But the surprise was regrettable in this case. After a night of horror and unending fight, plenty of bloodshed, the Lannister soldiers sworn to the Imp had learnt rapidly to kill first and to pose questions later. Between the first crossbows was shot and the last man died, the skirmish lasted less than one minute. But it was more than enough. Somewhere around twenty men died, including the members of the Kingsguard Ser Osney Kettleblack, Ser Edmund Ambrose and Ser Hugh Clifton. King Tommen Baratheon, in spite of the gallant sacrifice of his guards received one arrow in the neck, which proved immediately fatal. The few maesters and healers still alive in the Great Sept of Baelor were powerless to save the young monarch. The war had just claimed the life of another king.

If the raven which had announced the supposed death of Princess Myrcella had made the Queen-Regent take more insane political and military decisions than the norm, the last of her last child seemed to have robbed her of her wits. Not even listening the version of the event from her own supporters, Cersei Lannister rushed to kill her brother with a dagger in her hand. She failed of course. Tyrion Lannister had an axe, was more battle-experienced, had still coherent thoughts (and according to some historians hated more his sister than his sister hated him). The "duel" ended with Cersei Lannister having her skull exploded by an axe strike. The last Kingsguard alive in the capital ,Ser Boros Blount (Ser Balon Swann having been sent to Dorne to secure Princess Myrcella after the first Battle of King's Landing ) , had the disgrace to surrender again . As some maesters affirmed openly after the deed, it didn't change anything. After all, with Red Keep empty of almost all defenders, Robb Stark and his senior commanders were going to crush all resistance as dawn came; which meant Tyrion Lannister and his remnants of Westerners had only minutes left to live.

And then a monumental explosion shook off King's Landing. A second sun rose at the eastern part of the capital, but this one was neither red nor yellow. It was green, a colour which was unfortunately familiar to everyone who had even seen wildfire in action. Before anyone could even think about preventing the disaster, the Red Keep was bathed in green flames. Far away, a scream of agony sounded. In the years after the battle, the Starks would affirm it was Lord Tywin Lannister's ultimate roar. Seeing the flames dancing over Maegor's tower was the last straw for every soldier. In a splendid spirit of safety, all the men, women and children still alive in King's Landing did their best to escape the inferno they saw. The Battle of the Four Armies was over; the battle against the wildfire had just begun...


	31. Aerys's Legacy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. A stockpile of wildfire has been left two decades under the capital and hasn't been discovered until now. What are the odds?

raw666: True, in nearly every story of A Song of Ice and Fire (it includes canon) the people of King's Landing have been given the short straw. Religious fanatics, wildfire, Targaryens...Robb will try to give the refugees a new home. The awful part is that Tywin and Cersei had already massacred so many of the city total population (plus starvation and other little issues ) the number of survivors will be (barely ) manageable for the Kingdom of the North and the Riverlands.

The Seven Kingdoms are only a name on a map right now. For all intent and purposes, they have ceased to exist. Though a few leaders will still try to gather again the pieces before the end. Whether or not they succeed...

Cancer-Chris: I must admit I really wanted to fulfil the prophecy. It was an important part defining Cersei's personality after all. For that she had to believe her three children were dead, that her valonquar was responsible and that her political power was gone. You will note that all the conditions have been fulfilled.

Melisandre power is slightly more powerful than canon, due to the fact she had a lot more faithful in Stannis army surviving than in the books (where the entire army was wiped out at the Blackwater). What's more she adopted a "quantity beats quality" approach. Burning a lot of persons with a bit of royal blood is apparently more efficient than burn one person.

X59: For the wildfire issue, answer in this chapter. You will have to wait a bit for the Dorne chapter to see if Myrcella is alive or not.

Master of Dragons God: Yes, and the award is saving your life. Dying by wildfire is a very nasty way to die...

Guest: New chapter delivered...

Revan3363: Thanks! As for Tyrion, he tries to do what he does best: survive! With his loyal Bronn and Podrick Payne at his side of course...

Paul: Varys disappeared because if he stayed his head would be on a pike the next day. Neither Stannis nor Robb have utility for him after the service he did for the realm... but he will re-appear.

There have been a few changes to Cersei prophecy, yes, but the basics have been respected. And the 'strangled' part was always a bit strange. Tyrion is not tall enough to jump to Cersei's neck and strangle her.

Balon Swann was sent to Dorne, not because there was a rumour that Arys was dead, but due to the reverse of fortune for the Lannisters, Cersei felt her daughter had best to come home at the capital. Irony, Sunspear is much safer right now than King's Landing...

Melisandre never burnt so much people in canon truly, but was it because she didn't want to, or simply because she had not the means and the opportunity? So far, her POV and her actions in the books did not give me a good impression of her. When you're willing to burn a young boy who is innocent to "wake up a stone dragon", the person willing to do this is (at least) a very dark shade of grey.

Now, answers to some of the questions everyone is wondering on...

 **Aerys's Legacy**

 **The Battle of the Four Armies Part III**

 _"Aerys won in the end. The capital burned and my father died. "_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

 _"No, pissing on wildfire is not the means to extinguish it."_ Unknown Soldier after the Battle of the Four Armies.

 _"From this day, creating wildfire is a death sentence and any alchemist found will face royal justice."_ King Stannis Baratheon, 300AC.

Anyone who had ever the dubious honour to meet King Aerys II Targaryen in the last years of his reign could have told the sovereign was mad. Mad and dangerous : to begin Robert's Rebellion , Aerys II had not hesitated to murder the Lord Paramount of the North , his heir , the heir of the Eyrie Elbert Arryn , one member of House Mallister and many others lords or knights who had the temerity to not share the royal opinion on how Westeros should be ruled . Children, young men, women, old men, merchants, knights, lords; no one was safe when Aerys II 'the Mad' decided you were a traitor. But what many people had tried to forget was that the men sentenced to die by Aerys were not hanged or decapitated. They burnt. And for very man or woman to die, wildfire was used. Needless to say, it didn't made Aerys very popular among the small folk or the lords he was supposed to govern, and Robert's Rebellion happened. By the end of it, there was no doubt at all Aerys was completely insane, and the final proof was given when Lord Rossart, head of the Alchemist's Guild, was given the post of the Hand of the King after having burnt the previous one (who had the temerity to believe that the war was lost after the battle of the Trident).

What Aerys plans were remained mysterious even after Robert Baratheon took the throne, in part thanks to the actions of Tywin Lannister, who sacked the city to prove his loyalty to the cause of the Rebellion. Most of Aerys's supporters died in the sack of the capital, and those who didn't were forced to take the Black on the spot (the alternative being their head on a pike). The only person who was aware of it and really should have told someone was the Kingslayer, but unexpectedly Ser Jaime Lannister had chosen to keep only one vow of his Kingsguard's oath. The one which demanded him to protect the secrets of his sovereign. With all the senior alchemists dead in 283AC, no one was left to inform rebel lords such as Jon Arryn, Eddard Stark or Robert Baratheon that hundreds of wildfire's jars were hidden in the capital's underground. Seventeen years later, most of the people had stayed ignorant of the massive danger under their feet. Because wildfire wasn't just a normal substance. Unlike oil or another flammable products typically used in Westerosi warfare, wildfire never ceased to become dangerous. In fact, the power of the wildfire increased year after year. Under each gate of King's Landing, under the Red Keep, under every quarter of the city, dozens and dozens of jars could go off at any moment. The first persons to be aware of the problem were, unsurprisingly, the alchemists themselves. Needing a place to put the newly created wildfire ordered by the Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister, the men discovered large stocks of wildfire under the Dragonpit. Other jars were found under the Great Sept of Baelor too. However, there was a war going on, and no one in 300AC had imagined there could be more jars of the substance hidden in the capital. Wildfire was time-consuming and terribly expensive to create, after all. And so when the fire reached the foundations of the Red Keep, as a result of the brief civil war between the Lannister factions during the Second Battle of King's Landing, there were still over a hundred jars, full of a substance twenty years old.

As it was made clear by the survivors, the Red Keep was briefly illuminated in green fire, as if someone had decided to lighten a new green sun before dawn. On the instant, no one realised what had just happened. Then came the realisation. Shock. Anger. Despair. But as the wildfire showed no tendency to stop, every warrior and non-warrior did the only thing that made sense: they ran. There was no more distinction between Northerners, Riverlanders, Stormlanders, Poor Fellows, Westernlanders, and Kingslanders. There were only men, women and children; all of whom tried to escape the green wave of destruction which was surging in their direction. But for those who had been the nearest from Aegon's High Hill, escape was impossible. There had been simple too little time for the small folk and the soldiers fighting in the parts of the River Rows and Flea Bottom near the Red Keep. And to make a bad situation even worse , it appeared the pyromancers had under Aerys's command buried wildfire in several places all over the city's , using no doubt the secret passages built in the time of Maegor the Cruel . Several Riverlanders Houses, among them members of House Piper, House Butterwell and House Vance of Atranta perished in the inferno, along with the Poor Fellows and the Stormlanders they were tracking in the maze of small streets.

This was enough for the core army of the North and the Riverlands. King Robb Stark immediately ordered a general retreat outside the city using all the gates under his control (Old Gate, Gate of the Gods, King's Gate and Dragon Gate). Most of the lords and their forces were already rushing towards salvation, abandoning the fighting completely. This was a miracle for Tyrion Lannister and the last couple hundred Westernlanders under his command : with the Lion Gate still nominally under the control of a combined Lannister-Goldcloak force , the men sworn to the Imp and thousands of civilians ran outside to King's Landing ... to be forced to surrender immediately . Lord Stevron Frey and a force of 200 cavalrymen had stayed in front of the Lion Gate to avoid any potential sally. It was good for Tyrion Lannister that Princess Sansa Stark was safe and sound ; otherwise the forces commanded by the new Lord of Casterly Rock and Lord Addam Marbrand would certainly have been eliminated without trial .

Close to the Blackwater, the situation was desperate. Melisandre of Asshai had reappeared on the frontlines, and was now trying to summon the power of the wildfire for unknown purposes. In this, she was blocked by the efforts of archers trapped on top of the ramparts, who had decided that if they had to die, at least the Red Witch would go to the Seven Hells before them. It is unknown if they manage to achieve their goal. The wildfire reached the Mud Gate, and the wildfire jars underneath it exploded. The whole northern bank of the Blackwater became a sea of green fire, sending the courageous bowmen and Melisandre of Asshai out of this plane of existence. Five minutes later, it was the turn of the Iron Gate to explode in green flames.

By that point, most of the Four Armies warriors having survived the battle were out of the city. Thousands of Kingslanders were not. Heroic and evil actions happened by the hundreds. Women trying to save their children .Men choosing to save their families before themselves. Deserters and former soldiers pushing their former comrades in the wildfire to have a chance of escape. Thieves and cutthroats doing their best to escape a violent death they felt they didn't deserve. And as the sun rose in a sinister dawn, the wildfire engulfed the city. Fortunately, the fact that Tyrion Lannister and the alchemists had emptied the jars under Visenya's and Rhaenys's Hill made the progression of the wildfire slower. Not that it saved the Great Sept of Baelor or the Dragon Pit (although the latter was not of the same importance as the former). The King's Gate was the next to explode. Then the Dragon Gate. The Old Gate. It was then the wildfire reached the Guildhall of the Alchemists .Despite having used most of their reserves in the First Battle of King's Landing, there were still many wildfire jars in there. Although there were safety measures to prevent a full conflagration, they proved not enough in this case .The Guildhall exploded like a volcano of green fire, leaving a monumental crater where it had once been located. After such a monumental explosion, the fall of the Lion Gate and the Gate of the Gods was relatively unimpressive. For one day and one night, thousands of men and women watched the greatest city of the Seven Kingdoms burn. The screams of the dying, an awful music which drove many veterans to suicide, soon died, leaving only the noise of the wildfire melting the stones and devouring all the houses inside the walls. When dawn rose again, a scene of ultimate desolation greeted the human eyes. King's Landing was no more.

Of the various forces who participated in the Battle of the Four Armies, about 9000 Northerners and Riverlanders survived. 800 men under Lord Tyrion Lannister had managed to escape the fall of the capital, as did some 200 Poor Fellows (who were kept under very close guard) and around 50 000 Kingslanders. On the Southern bank, about 3000 men of King Stannis Baratheon were alive (although many had fled southwards in the last moments of the battle). The master of Storm's End, however, seemed to have re-evaluated his ambitions to the Iron Throne (which was in the middle of the wildfire destruction anyway). The morning when the fires died down, Northern scouts signalled the Stormlanders camp was gone. King Stannis had abandoned for the second time his siege of the capital. The King in the North had triumphed, but it was a bitter victory, one which had cost tens of thousands of lives. The War of the Eight Kings was not over, but this lapse in the hostilities would be later named the Winter's Dawn. Southerners today of course give it another name: the Reign of the Wolves...


	32. The Ashes of Victory

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. When in times of war the enemy forgets to respect all the laws and customs, sooner or later, even good guys feel the need to retaliate...

raw666: Good points, unfortunately can't say too much without unveiling what happens in the next chapters. I can say your assessments that Jaime Lannister, the Westerlands and the Lannisters are in deep trouble are accurate. Some events are going to shake the structure of the nobility quite a bit. The identity of the culprits will be quite interesting.

For the moment, the Stark's capital is Winterfell, with Riverrun as secondary capital to administer the Riverlands and the occupied Westerlands.

The Iron Bank is going to want its money back, no doubt about it. They will have a chapter, although it won't be too soon as I must admit I have not written it...

Cancer-Chris: The splintering was already happening during the first part of the war. Now with the capital gone, it is becoming even more evident. Invasions in the short-term future are going to force the Seven Kingdoms to unite again in a temporary manner to defeat their enemies. The question, of course, will be if this appearance of cohesion will survive the last battle...

X59: In fact, I took inspiration from canon for this quote (grin). As for the act who leads to this quote, let's just say some situations are really managing to combine the ridiculous and the horror...

Pre-war, the population of King's Landing was in the vicinity of half a million. Add approximately 150 000 refugees of all sort fleeing the devastation of the Crownlands and the Riverlands. Of these 650 000 men, women and children, around 150 000 died of starvation, in the riots or against the blades of the Lannisters when they purged the city. Thousands died in the purges which happened afterwards. Between 30 000 and 50 000 fled between the two Battles of King's Landing (back to their ruined homes, in the Crownlands of in the Reach ).In the Battle of the Four Armies about 20 000 Poor Fellows and about five times as many inhabitants died. So by the time the wildfire erupted, there was about 290 000 persons alive in King's Landing. 50 000 lived to see another day, a rate of survival of 17%. Absolutely worthy to be called a carnage, in my opinion.

We will see Sandor Clegane again, his part in this story is far from over...

Master of Dragons God: Thanks!

Guest(s): Yes, Melisandre is trying to make the human race survives, although everyone wonders if her methods are not worse than the evil they're fighting against...

Jaime Lannister was young and stupid when he killed Aerys. Not to forget arrogant, all too willing to **** with his sister and a few other "qualities". The major problem is that fifteen years later, he has not overcome these issues. In fact, he becomes ten times worse, to the point he daily violates all his vows in the first books. It's only when he has lost everything he begins to finally think for himself.

TheAlagoano: Indeed, indeed.

Revan3363: Thanks as always for the support.

Paul: No, Wendel survives here. He was one of the men who had the time to reach the gates before it was too late (his robust nature probably help making a path to safety).

As for who set the fire... I'm afraid this answer will not be answered before a long time (chapters wise of course). Honestly, no one is going to come out and claim he was guilty of starting the disaster. No one is THAT stupid (except perhaps Joffrey, but he's dead...).

 **The Ashes of Victory**

 **Winter's Dawn Part I**

 _"I don't want to be killed like Ser Ilyn."_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

 _"Bloodraven was a bastard, but he was an intelligent bastard!"_ Lord Tytos Blackwood, 300AC.

 _"In the end, this city has just become another Harrenhal."_ Lord Jonos Bracken, 300AC.

With the moment the last drops of wildfire died, a deep silence came. In itself, it was not a surprise. If there was someone or something alive in the devastated city of King's Landing, no one was able to find it. Humans, dogs, cats, wood, and grain: the wildfire had devoured everything. Only the stone had not been destroyed , but it was a small consolation : what the wildfire could not destroy , it had melted .As a result , the Red Keep and the Great Sept of Baelor , the two greatest and most imposing structures of the capital , were now bearing a strong resemblance to the ruins of Harrenhal .And like the sinister fortress of Harren the Black when Aegon the Conqueror burnt it with the Black Dread , there was little but ashes to greet the winners .

When King Robb Stark, King in the North and the Riverlands, entered King's Landing three days after what everyone was now calling the Battle of the Four Armies, he was greeted by a picture of desolation and the silence of the grave. From the Gate of the Gods to the Red Keep, there was nothing but ruins. Even animals preying on the corpses like crows were missing, as if a curse had banished everything living from what had been the most populated city of Westeros. It didn't get better in Maegor's Holdfast. Before the current conflict erupted, the colour of the Red Keep and its surroundings were putting some lords and knights ill-at-ease. Now, with the stone itself tainted from colours stretching from red-black to livid green, the citadel was appearing as diseased and haunted. Then the King and his party marched in the throne room.

One look was enough to know King Robb Stark was not going to sit the Iron Throne. In fact, it was soon realised nobody would sit on the Iron Throne for quite a time. Not only the Great Hall had been partially damaged by all the explosions, but the throne itself had taken a part of the wildfire heat. As a dragon had been necessary to forge the throne, the wildfire concocted by the alchemists had not been enough to destroy the seat of power. Instead, the throne itself had simply melted, and was now spread over a quarter of what had been the main Hall of the Red Keep. As witnesses who assisted to this stunning spectacle described it, it was more like a sea of swords. A black sea. Swords of every kingdom of Westeros (except of course Dorne), dark reminders of what had been the mortar of Westeros's foundations. Now, these swords were spread out, like they had been in a battlefield recently. The greatest symbol of Targaryen's rule for the last three hundred years was now an object of derision . For those who had still a glimmer of hope to reunite Westeros, it was a disaster. But for supporters of Northern and Riverlands independence, it was a unique opportunity.

The Iron Throne had been more than a symbol of power: it had also been the reminder of King Torrhen Stark's humiliation in front of the Red Fork, the last King in the North being forced to kneel before the might of the dragons. Hundreds of swords had been surrendered this day to forge the monstrous throne. Now, led by Lord Jon 'Greatjon' Umber, soldiers of the North took maces and axes, and began to free the old and melted swords from the black iron they were imprisoned. Riverlanders lords like Lord Tytos Blackwood and Lord Karyl Vance soon followed. After several hours of work, whereas less than a quarter of the words had been extracted from their iron prison, they found it.

Dark Sister. The ancestral sword of House Targaryen. Last seen when wielded by one of the Great Bastards, Brynden 'Bloodraven' Rivers, and the Valyrian sword had disappeared when the former Hand of the King had taken the Black. But apparently, Aegon IV's son had not taken the sword with him to the Wall. Bloodraven had hidden it among the swords of the Iron Throne. It was the only piece of good news for the soldiers who had the temerity to enter the ruins of King's Landing. Not only the swords of the destroyed throne were hard to recuperate, but it was also evident from the state of the city that really few useful things had survived the fall of the capital.

In what had been the seat of House Baratheon of King's Landing, very little quantities of precious metals were found, to the point some men attracted to war by the promise of loot wondered if the Lannisters and their allies hadn't transferred their money elsewhere before the arrival of King Stannis Baratheon. The food reserves, of course, had burnt in their totality, and expensive articles like Myrish lace, Myrish glasswork, ship supplies from Pentos and Braavos had been destroyed by the heat or by the flames. It was evident after one day that searching wealth in the abandoned houses and halls of King's Landing was a fool's errand. A dangerous errand: some buildings, apparently safe, collapsed when someone tried to enter them, causing plenty of deaths which could have been avoided if approached with a minimum of safety measures.

King Robb Stark himself left the Red Keep and what remained of King's Landing after only a few hours. He would never re-enter the destroyed capital ever again.

Now that the battle was over and victory was assured, there were several issues to deal with. First the fate of the almost 40 000 men, women and children which had managed to escape the wildfire inferno. As neither the Starks nor the Tully had the funds, the manpower or the means to rebuild King's Landing before winter, the decision was taken to abandon the estuary of Blackwater Bay. The surviving population of the capital was dispersed among the Riverlands (where manpower was in short supply) and the Crownlands (most notably Duskendale and the eastern coast).

It was also the moment to divide the spoils of war. For his loyalty and his exploits on the battlefield, Ser Perwyn Frey became Lord Perwyn Rosby, Lord of Rosby (Lord Gyles having found a burning end in the Red Keep). Lord Perwyn was also promised the hand of Catelyn Bracken. Ser Hugo Vance, of House Vance of Atranta, became the new Lord Stokeworth (the last survivors of the House being currently detained in their own jails). Artos Umber, cadet son of Jon 'Greatjon' Umber, became the new Lord of Duskendale, while Ser Wendel Manderly was granted Maidenpool, House Mooton having been anything but loyal during the current conflict. Lucas Blackwood received Sow's Horn, Brynden Shawney Rook's Rest, "Little" Walder Frey was named Lord of Darry, due to this House's extinction. And Aenys Frey was granted the lordship of Harrenhal, though the dreadful reputation of the place (which had killed five men since House Bolton had taken the castle) made it a very unhappy proposition.

As unhappy as Aenys Frey was, the prisoners taken by the Northerners were understandably even more worried. Granted, they had excellent reasons for their fears. Every man who had had the bad luck to be caught with a Seven Stars symbol on his forehead was immediately executed by the Northerners and the Riverlanders. As far as the Tullys and the Starks were concerned the laws of Maegor had never been repealed: a religious fanatic carrying weapons was as a consequence an act of treason against the Crown and the King in the North. For the rest of the prisoners, it varied on a case per case basis. Some Stormlanders, who had helped their Riverlands or Northern counterparts escape in the inferno, were liberated under the promise they never waged war again against the forces of the North. Others had been less helpful, and would remain prisoner until suitable ransoms could be collected for their liberation.

For most of the Lannister bannersmen, the problem was infinitely greater. While most of the monsters under the authority of the now deceased Lord Tywin Lannister had perished at one moment or another in the war, there were quite a few who were under a death sentence if they fell in Stark Hands. Ser Ilyn Payne, who had managed to escape the Battle of the Four Armies, was found by Princess Arya Stark and her direwolf (the princess having fought the battle among the Mormont forces, with the complicity of Dacey Mormont). The former Royal executor was torn apart and eaten alive. With his death, one of the two Valyrian swords created from the destruction of Ice went back to Stark possession. One hundred and seventy men, who had "distinguished" themselves in the Riverlands Campaign by slaughtering, raping and murdering defenceless villages and small towns, followed Payne in death (but they took the axe as the method of execution, not the direwolf).

That left the question of what to do with Tyrion Lannister, Lancel Lannister and the 530 or so surviving Westerners. Many soldiers sworn to Riverrun, having still in memory the failed evasion attempt of Ser Jaime Lannister, were convinced that killing more Lions could only be a good thing. Some lords, including Lord Stevron Frey pushed for mercy as a strategic value. With the death of Lord Tywin, Tyrion 'the Imp' Lannister was now Lord of Casterly Rock, and if one wanted to bypass him in the order of succession, it was Lancel Lannister who came after. Added to that, Lord Addam Marbrand and Ser Lyle Crakehall were also among the prisoners. With such prestigious hostages, the War in the West was as good as won. In the end, no one knows what solution King Robb Stark would have chosen. Several men came in the evening to the Northern camp, carrying news from the North and the West. News which would change the course of the war...


	33. The Thrall Rebellion

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. If I was, the Ironborn and Westerlands manpower reserves would have been remarked long before the fourth book.

raw666: The wildlings are indeed deeply involved in what happened in the North, although some other forces are in movement. The West is in complete collapse, and will appear in a later chapter.

As for the matter of the prophecy, it's possible the way you describe it will happen. As you remarked, it absolutely fit for the time of darkness in Westeros. Unfortunately, until the Winds of Winter are published in the next few years, there's no way to be sure...

Cancer-Chris: The

X59: Bloodraven was always unconventional, even for a bastard of Targaryen and a Blackwood...

As you will see in this chapter, the Ironborn actions in the West are going to be in reaction for a little problem. The problems of the North will indeed involve the Night Watch. Wildlings and White Walkers tend to have this kind of effect.

Dacey will not be in big trouble, as Robb will realise quickly it was Arya who had the idea of this, not the Mormont woman. The sword that was recuperated by the Starks was Tommen's sword. As for what happened to the second, you will have to wait for a bit, I promise though it will be interesting...

When you will see what happens in the Vale, you will realise Lysa has far more to worry than the anger of her elder sister and her brother...

Master of Dragons God: Yes, the fire killed a lot of nasty persons, but it killed also a lot of innocent persons as well. Don't forget that.

Guest(s): Yes, the Starks are far nicer to their smallfolk population than the rest of the Sven Kingdoms, though given how certain lords use their servants (I'm looking at you Cersei )...

Matt Quinn: Thanks! The mistake has been corrected.

The irony of non-Faith believers enforcing the edicts of a Targaryen king was intentional, though by that point most warriors were ready to seize any excuse to avoid fighting these fanatics ever again.

Revan3363: Thanks as always for the support.

Paul: Lot of reviews, I see.

As for the issue of Umbers, you're right, I wanted for Artos to be the cadet son of Jon 'Greatjon' Umber. Both sons of Mors died at the Trident. Thanks to have noticed it. Perwyn and Little Walder were the most logical choices in terms of dynastic successions. I chose Aenys for Harrenhal because he's exactly the type of knight everyone wants to be rid of.

House Mooton wasn't disloyal per se; they did absolutely nothing in this war. But that's part of the problem, as they were former Targaryen loyalists in the previous conflict and in this one they refused to hear the summons of their Lord Paramount. Which is very close to disloyalty in everyone's book.

Tywin died in the inferno which consumed the citadel of Maegor.

The answer of the Iron Bank will be long in coming. They are definitely not pleased by the outcome of the battle, needless to say.

As for the great enemy, I don't have any reason to hide it is the White Walkers. The wildlings, despite their numbers, took quite a beating in canon when Stannis army took them by surprise. Daenerys is going to be a threat, but not for humanity as a whole. Ice abominations bent on exterminating anything that lives, on the other hand...

And now the chapter!

 **The Thrall Rebellion**

 **The Second Greyjoy Rebellion Part IV**

 _"It's difficult to crush a rebellion when you can't walk on your own."_ Asha Greyjoy, 300AC

 _"What is dead must stay dead!"_ Thrall battlecry, 300AC.

When one spoke about the Iron Islands in Westeros, it was usually not in positive tones. Even avoiding any sort of comments on its inhabitants, the simple truth was that there was really nothing welcoming in this archipelago of the Sunset Sea. The islands were stony, small, of dubious fertility to harvest any sort of culture and frequently wrecked by storms. Despite the plentiful fish reserves near the islands, fishing was an extremely risked activity due to the climate. Farming was a tiring and inglorious affair. Both activities made sure most of the men were drunk after the sun set, angry their efforts gave them so little return. No wonder most of the Ironborn considered reaving the gift of the Drowned God.

Reaving, as it was, gave another opportunity for the inhabitants of the Iron Islands. Working in the mines of the Iron Islands was a back-breaking and dangerous labour, which no one in his right mind would want to do. Thralls captured in the reavings, however, would not have any choice. It was the best of both worlds for the Ironborn: they obtained the iron, lead and tin they wanted, while letting other persons do it in their place. The opinion of thralls did not even enter their mind. Perhaps it should have: for all their insistence that thraldom was not slavery, in practise no one was able to tell the difference. Life expectancy in the mines was measured in months, and when an accident happened (frequently as even a lord of the Westerlands was more careful with his workers); the number of casualties was in the two digits.

Then came the Second Greyjoy Rebellion in 299AC and the crowning of Euron III Greyjoy at the kingsmoot. The elder surviving brother of Balon Greyjoy was proclaimed king by a large majority of the captains gathered here , killed the captains who didn't swear him their fealty in the aftermath , and then sailed southwards with the entire military might of the Iron Islands , the Iron Fleet and hundreds of longships . Erik Ironmaker was left behind, taking the position of Pyke's castellan.

No matter what Euron III thought, it was evident Erik Ironmaker was not up to the task. Or maybe, to be more accurate, Erik was not able to control the Iron Islands with the forces his new king had left him. To be fair to the new acting-castellan of Pyke, the issues that had to be solved were huge. Less than a month after Euron's departure, a relative unknown cousin of Baelor Blacktyde named Quellon Blacktyde claimed the lordship of Blacktyde, and convinced most of the other men left at Blacktyde Castle to follow him in purging the men loyal to Euron III. All over the islands, the attempts to kill the priests of the Drowned God by Euron's loyalists unleashed insurrections against the Greyjoy Rule. At Ten Towers, Asha Greyjoy mustered approximately 700 men, and there was little opposition at Harlaw for any lord or captain to oppose her. Erik Ironmaker and his subordinate commanders tried to retaliate, but their task was next to impossible. The king of the Iron Islands had stripped the archipelago bare from men of fighting age (which for an Ironborn, was from 13 to 60). The ones who remained, some Codds, Goodbrothers of the cadet branches, some Farwynds, proved unable to stem the tide of the revolts. On Great Wyk, several small-scaled battles took places, with places like "Corpse Lake" truly earning their name. The Iron Islands were aflame, and no man had the power to oppose it: Erik Ironmaker was not able to walk, never mind fight. His grandsons, Urek, Thromor and Dagon all perished one after another trying to subdue insurrections in Great Wyk.

Needless to say, what was left of fighting capacity in the Iron Islands quickly disappeared in this series of military actions. For all their boasts of warmongering and intrepidity, the Iron Islands had a very low density of population, and were not in the same category as the rest of the Seven Kingdoms. Even Dorne, the weakest region of Westeros in terms of population, had more men than the Ironborn. But this had been before 289AC. Before Balon Greyjoy decided to rebel a first time, and received the treatment of those who had the temerity to anger Robert Baratheon. Before Balon Greyjoy decided to rebel a second time, lost hundreds of men in the swamps surrounding Moat Cailin, the cold lands of the North, the defences of Lannisport. Before Euron took the last reserves to the Reach. Before insurrections to support the Drowned religion killed the last men at home. After this, no matter what had been thought, the Ironborn had almost no military capacity left. It was time for the not -so-free population of the Iron Islands to act.

As said before, being a thrall was often a fate worse than being a slave in the Iron Islands. Being a slave meant you could be sold to a master who would value your existence. The Ironborn had no care for human life. A thrall's life was a hell, a life of privation and misery in the mines or any other dangerous work the lords and masters of the Iron Islands wished to not do themselves. The less said about what was done to the salt wives, the better. With too few men to guard the thralls and the rest of the enslaved population, most of them did not let this chance pass. No record was kept where the first attempts to revolt were made, but Great Wyk and Old Wyk were prime contenders, with their own population already fighting each other.

The Thrall Rebellion, as it was the name it entered history, was not a rebellion but a series of massacres of horrendous proportions. Some thralls had been reduced to this state of slavery for generations and the wells of anger accumulated were deep. For the thralls or salt wives who had been once free in their lives, it was even worse. In these circumstances, there was no "acceptable limit " or "rules of war" which were acceptable. Every woman, man or child who had the bad fortune to cross the way of the thrall insurrection died in atrocious sufferings. Men were drowned again and again in front of their tortured wives. Children were torn apart and thrown in the waves, a sinister parody of the Drowned Priests traditions. Houses were set aflame, usually with their owners inside it. Food supplies were poisoned, burnt or thrown into the seas. As there was a real lack of ships to return to the continent, bands of former thralls and salt wives roamed all across the Iron Islands, killing every living being they encountered. Great Wyk, Old Wyk , Saltcliffe, Blacktyde, and Orkmont fell to an orgy of violence rarely seen in this world , making an ironic statement of all the atrocities the Ironborn were doing in the Reach .Only Pike and Harlaw managed to resist the waves of destruction .

Not that it was bloodless or painless. Harlaw was the wealthiest and the most populated of the Iron Islands and Pyke had three Noble Houses, each with their own castles. All of this meant strong fortifications ... but also a lot of thralls and salt wives in proximity. When the rebellions began, the thralls and their allies (descended from thralls themselves) had no chance, fighting dozens of veterans Ironborn warriors. The Ironborn had the weapons, the tactics and the knowledge of the terrain: the rebellion had only the numerical advantage. It was not enough. The blood of the thralls flooded the lands, red rivers nothing was able to stop. When it was over, Harlaw and Pyke's population had been each reduced by half (at least half, nobody bothered counting the hundreds of corpses lying on the fields). For Asha Greyjoy, it was the last straw. As the lady captain explained her followers, the time of the Ironborn was long past. Only the Iron Fleet and the rest of the Ironborn could have saved the situation in the archipelago, and these forces were not here. When travel times were measured in months, relief for the Iron Islands would come late. Too late. Assuming any relief came of course. Abandoning the Iron Islands was the only decision possible, and soon a small evacuation went underway.

On Pyke, on the other hand, the last forces of the Ironmakers, Wynchs and Botleys did not share the opinion of their king's niece that all was lost, and led several suicidal attempts to crush the revolts burning the Iron Islands. Badly organised, with little care to rally the smallfolk or anyone to their banners, the offensives were a disaster. Not many of the reavers came back to Pyke. Even less returned victorious. Some stalemates were achieved on Orkmont and Blacktyde, but anywhere else, the Iron Islands were lost. To his great shame, Erik Ironmaker realised he would have to wait the return of his king for a liberation of the ancestral Ironborn lands. The question was if there would be anything to save when Euron III came back...


	34. Wine and Fire

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Arbor and the Ironborn.

raw666: I will not answer this question immediately (though if you want a direct answer, feel free to PM me), but I will say that for the moment Euron is unaware of what happened in the Iron Islands. Not that he cares a lot about them, honestly. His campaign against the Reach is the priority.

The thralls have not a very good opinion about Westeros. First, because as you said the Seven Kingdoms tolerate what the Ironborn are doing. Secondly, because the Ironborn have a very bad opinion from the island and thralls rarely leave the islands to hear other point of view...

Asha's fate is going to be interesting, but might not be what you've imagined. On the other hand, it's Braavos and some other Free Cities which have the best defences against dragons. Westerosi tactics seems to be to concentrate a lot of ballista and scorpions and hope to have a lucky shot...

nappus: In theory, you're absolutely correct. Descendants of thralls cannot be thralls. That's the theory, however, and so far in canon, we did not have many examples of free descendants of thralls. The Codds and Qarl the Maid have being shown.

Given how badly such a thing can be abused and the behaviour of the Ironborn towards their salt wives and thralls, I really doubt this is what happens, and wrote as such in my story. Freeing a son or daughter of thrall likely remains a lord's choice in the Iron Islands, and given such paragons of virtue like Euron and Victarion Greyjoy (not to mention Balon and a lot of other lords) the evident truth is a lot of persons have been enslaved in the last decade. 'Thralldom is not slavery' is just an excuse made by the Ironborn to avoid the wrath of the Iron Throne. The fate of saltwives is usually worse than slaves, and if you don't believe me, look at what happened in the books.

Cancer-Chris: The Ironborn being the recipient of a Spartacus-like rebellion is quite an irony indeed...

X59: For now, the Iron Islands are in complete chaos. Pyke is under control of the Euron loyalists, and Harlaw is under Asha rule (in the name of her uncle Rodrik). The rest is changing every day, with Drowned Priests, rebel thralls and Euron followers slaughtering each other. For the moment, the thralls have the upper hand, and many of the Ironborn nobility have retrenched themselves in their castles.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks!

Guest(s): Coming now for chapter 33...

Matt Quinn: The Iron Islands was always the weakest kingdom of Westeros save perhaps Dorne, but they compensated this by 'only' having a fleet, not an army, and having a larger part of their total population go to war. The North and Westerlands campaign serious depleted these reserves, and Euron took with him about 90% (and perhaps more) of the total Ironborn strength. So apart from Asha, Harlaw and some Pyke forces, there's almost nothing left to deal with a rebellion.

Revan3363: Glad you like my story.

Paul: Quellon Blacktyde and some of his followers are retrenched in Blacktyde castle right now. About the only part of the island under his control. Erik Ironmaker will have a very remarked death, I promise. Tristifer stayed with Asha, poor boy is still persuaded he can marry her...

Rodrik the Reader had to go with Euron. To do anything else would have been treason, although a suspicious number of his most loyal warriors stayed at home. A life insurance we shall say. As for where Asha and her followers go, answer in the chapter on Sunday...

 **Wine and Fire**

 **The second Greyjoy Rebellion Part V**

" _Today, the Arbor. Tomorrow, Oldtown! "_ Euron III Greyjoy, 300AC.

 _"The fleet of the greenlanders was no match for us!"_ Victarion Greyjoy, 300AC.

 _"A sea of screams. "_ Desmond Redwyne, describing the battle of the Arbor, 300AC.

While the rebellions and insurrections were putting the Iron Islands aflame, a different kind of massacre was happening further south. With the defences of the Shield Islands in ruins, the naval forces of the Reach had been brutally hammered. Not only the price in men and warships had been considerable, but the destruction of the forces sworn to the Shield lords had left the lands of the Reach longing the Ocean road defenceless before the Ironborn longships. Villages and small forts, having been left unguarded to the belief there was nothing to fear from this direction, were torched by ecstatic Ironborn. Men were massacred, women were raped, houses were plundered. The Northern Marshes of the Reach were not as badly treated as the Riverlands were by the Lannisters, but the differences were growing weaker day by day.

House Tyrell did not let this atrocious actions pass unpunished and sent thousands of men under Lord Garlan Tyrell to repulse the Ironborn. At the great surprise of Mace Tyrell's second son, the reavers retreated without barely any resistance. Worse, despite the ravens sent proclaiming the presence of thousands of longships near Old Oak, the numbers of enemy warships were more close to thirty or forty longships. It had been a diversion ... and the Tyrells had royally fallen for it. Instead of putting all the Western coast defences in alert, only the lords of the Northern Marshes and the Mander had been mustered. And they were not the target.

The Shield Islands, before the battle recently having taken place there had only represented a fifth or a sixth of the Reach total naval capacities. The rest, apart from the minor harbours like Bandallon, were concentrated in Oldtown or in the island of the Arbor. The Redwyne fleet, which strength was close to a hundred great war galleys, one hundred lighter warships and five hundred merchants, had always been the Reach primary sword when it was question of sea battles. Euron III Greyjoy had no intention of letting this naval force free to battle him, and sailed his entire fleet (minus the diversion forces based on the Shield Islands) in the direction of the Arbor.

The attack came at a really bad time for the Redwyne fleet. Due to his sons Horras and Hobber being held hostage at the capital during the first part of the war, the Lord of the Arbor had been unable to make any moves which could be interpreted as threatening by the Lannisters. As a consequence, the proud warships of House Redwyne stayed disarmed until the First Battle of King's Landing. Shortly after this colossal battle, diplomatic relations between the Reach and the Lannisters warmed up, and Horras Redwyne was liberated, although his brother Hobber stayed a guest at court (where he was one of the numerous nobles perishing in the wildfire inferno). Under the orders of Lord Mace Tyrell, Lord Paxter Redwyne agreed to put his fleet on wartime conditions. That was easier said than done, however. Unlike land forces, war galleys and all the ships included in a sizeable fleet could not be assembled at a moment's notice, and the Redwyne fleet having a lot of converted merchantmen in its order of battle, their fleet took even more time to gather. In fact, the men necessary to make such a task possible took well over two months. More importantly, the preparations were only nearly finished (with nine ships out of ten operational) when the massive fleet of the Iron Islands came calling.

For once, the fact that the island had so many shipyards worked against the Redwyne fleet. The Greyjoy fleet, with the Iron fleet of Victarion Greyjoy in the vanguard, was already assembled and ready for battle when they came out of a storm in the middle of the night. The Southern warships, in comparison, were caught unprepared and struggled to sail out of their respective harbours and join the battle. They were five major ports on the Arbor, and each received warning of the impending attack at a different time. The Arbour northern port, Ryamsport, was the first to signal an enemy fleet sighted. The Arbour southern port, Starfish Arbor was the last. Between the time the first and the last warship of the Redwyne fleet sailed out of their ports, half a night had passed, and by that time nearly three-fifths of the Reach naval forces were outright sunk.

This was not a problem of courage or a lack of sizeable warships like at the Shield islands. This was a problem of organisation .Most of the sailors were experienced, but had not trained to manoeuvre in stormy conditions since a long time. Only the forces of Wine Harbor and Starfish Arbor had the time to concentrate their forces under Lord Paxter Redwyne. The rest, lacking the time to establish a true plan of battle, were overwhelmed by the number of the Ironborn longships. A true war galley was able to destroy one or two longships with ease and might be able to defend itself against three. But due to the division of their forces, the Reachers sailors were outnumbered ten to one in the first fights. The enemy of course, was also using no mere longship in its vanguard, but the elite of the Iron islands, the Iron fleet of Victarion Greyjoy himself.

Even then, the battle was not one-sided. Each major warship of the Reach in the battle of the Arbor took at least one longship with it before being sunk. The Southern sailors, knowing the sort of 'mercy' the Ironborn gave, didn't surrender and fought to the last man. Hour by hour, more and more Redwyne warships entered the battle, too few to make a difference in the outcome of the titanic battle, but these lone ships, dying by steel and fire, cost hundreds of Ironborn lives. Finally, as the sun set over the Redwyne straits again, the battle was over.

Ser Desmond Redwyne, now commander of the Redwyne fleet since the death of Lord Paxter at the hands of Victarion Greyjoy, ordered the retreat. The once mighty fleet of the Reach had less than 40 warships left, while they had been three days ago with 200. Most of the bigger galleys were sunk or captured, and there was no hope to inflict heavier losses on the Ironborn without risking the complete annihilation of the forces under his command. On the opposite side, the naval battle had been a bloody victory for Euron III Greyjoy. The Iron Fleet, which before the fight had consisted in roughly ninety ships, was now reduced to nearly 45 hulls. Of the 600 plus longships which had been sent into the inferno, 150 were simply gone. Dozens of the longships still afloat were in dire need of reparations, when they weren't sinking slowly due to battle damage or the aftermath of their ramming attempts. Bloodied but not stopped, the Ironborn had not had enough. And the Arbor fleet was not in measure to stop the Ironborn reavers.

If what had happened to the Shield Islands was horrible, then the events of the Arbor were a small vision of the Seven Hells. Too few of the Reachers sailors who had bled the Iron fleet were left alive to be a distraction, and the reavers were unleashed among the unarmed population of the island. Rapes, murders, tortures, orgies where entire reserves of Arbor wine were wasted, no depredation, no heinous act, no ignominy was too much for the victorious Ironborn warriors .

The victory of King Euron was not complete. The keep of House Redwyne, Redwyne Hall, in the centre of the island, resisted all the attempts made by the Ironborn made to storm it. And in the lands of the Arbor, resistance began to form. With improvised pikes, swords or other weapons, the common folk began to ambush and slaughter the Ironborn too drunk or too tired to kill. Victarion and Euron Greyjoy ordered massive reprisals, murdering twenty Reachers for each Ironman killed, but the losses still began to mount, as the behaviour of rapists and murderers of the reavers wasn't punished.

The King of the Iron Islands could have launched a massive annihilation campaign, but by then had already directed his mind to other plans. His brother Victarion, with all the Iron fleet ships still afloat and many Redwyne captured ships, was sent east to recover Daenerys 'Stormborn' Targaryen and her three dragons. During the time needed to expedite the repairs of battle, intact longships carried back to the Shield Islands more wealth and tribute in the form of thralls and salt wives (a polite term to describe tortured men and raped women) .This time, however, dissent was spreading in the ranks of Euron's subjects. The Ironborn warriors' last victory had been anything but cheap, and some reavers were already thinking of going back home to consolidate their gains and reputations in their Houses. The departure of Victarion, the fact that Euron was selling Reach inhabitants to slavers, all these acts were not going unnoticed by the captains. But Euron III had too many supporters due to these new conquests, and was able to dominate once more the wartime assembly of the Iron captains. Promises were made the next attack would be the last until "the return of the dragon" in Euron's own words. Once more, the longship fleet sailed out at the light of the fires burning the Arbor coast (some drunken sailors had let fires go out of control). The island of the Arbor had been devastated, and now the Crow's Eye turned his single eye to the only target left worth the value of reaving...


	35. The Hound or the Kraken

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I am still waiting for the next book like everyone else...

raw666: The Tyrells have always had a lot of luck in their history, starting from the very beginning when Aegon the Conqueror named them Lord Paramount of the Reach for the simple fact they weren't on the Field of Fire when the dragons roasted the Gardeners.

Their performance since then has been under-average shall we say. Will they survive? The odds are not in their favour, but Highgarden is for the moment undamaged and their food reserves are untouched, which is a big advantage compared to other devastated kingdoms.

X59: In my opinion, the neglect of the Reach coastal defences was a gradual process over the last three centuries, which increased over the last fifty years as there was no major Ironborn attack. Worse, the Reach navy repulsed a minor attack led by Quellon Greyjoy in Robert's Rebellion, which gave them an inflated idea of their defensive strategy.

The Ironborn aren't the brightest minds of the word, but don't forget the Reach had Mace Tyrell and some of his friends in command for the last twenty years. Mace is more intelligent than Balon, but that isn't saying much...

Master of Dragons God: You're welcome.

Guest(s): I'm doing the best I can with a chapter every three days...

Revan3363: Glad you like my story.

Paul: The "Big Walder case" is easy to explain: by the time an accord with Riveerrun had been negotiated, the War of the Eight Kings had begun and Walder was still at the Twins when Robb Stark came with his army. At that moment, sending him to foster at Winterfell seemed a more prestigious choice (not to mention that with Edmure prisoner, it was a clear signal to the Tullys that they'd better be careful ).

I have no intention to involve Aegon "Bloodborn" Frey into the mix. It would upset the plans I have for Harrenhal...

There will be no great Lannister-Stark alliance to fight the White Walkers. This chapter is going to tell you why. The Vale and Dorne are currently very agitated , as each have their own hotheads who want to intervene in the conflict before the war is over and they are excluded from the spoils. As it, the first chapters they will appear will be in theory the chapters 39 and 40. Normally.

M-Silver: Margaery never went to King's Landing in this story, as Loras being prisoner at Storm's End prevented an official alliance between Houses Lannister and Tyrell. For the moment her value in a political marriage is greatly reduced as everyone in Westeros is busy fighting a war...

 **The Hound or the Kraken ?**

 **The Invasion of the Westerlands Part III**

 _"Steal the rich! Feed the poor! "_ Unofficial war cry of the Brotherhood of the Hound.

 _"Cersei Lannister has just lost us the war. Again. "_ Ser Daven Lannister, 300AC.

 _"The Rock has fallen. The Kraken has defeated the Lion! "_ Captain Harrek Harlaw, 300AC.

A miracle. In the last months of the year 300AC, that was the only thing the lords of the Westerlands had left to hope. Their lands had been devastated. Their castles were burnt, in ruins, or occupied by the enemy. Despite this, some optimistic strategists have developed in recent years views that the Lannister position, while quite difficult, could be still reversed. After all, before the Battle of Mud and Fire, the fortresses of Banefort, Casterly Rock, Deep Den, Silverhill, Hornvale and the Golden Tooth were still resisting to the Karstark invading force. But a more accurate appreciation of the strategic situation revealed the weakness of these arguments. Of these six strongholds, three knew their lords had perished on the battlefield (Lord Brax, Lord Lydden and Lord Lefford) and one was prisoner at Riverrun (Lord Banefort). Of the two lords having avoided death or capture, Lord Tywin Lannister would not survive the Battle of the Four Armies and Lord Serret was made prisoner in the rout that followed the disaster at Bronzegate. As a direct consequence of these deaths, there was no grand counterattack to defeat the Karstark force, no matter its (relative) small size. It was common knowledge that after the First Battle of King's Landing, the Western lords weren't openly contemplating treason, but most were more and more doubting the war could have the outcome they wanted. And the Karstark victories at Sarsfield, Cornfield and Crakehall did nothing to change this opinion. To be fair, it was quite extraordinary there was no noble willing to rise in such a desperate hour and defy the Lannisters. But Tywin Lannister had done a thorough job with the Reynes and the Tarbecks: the men who had survived the Lannisters purges in Aerys's era had transmitted the fear and terror they felt to their descendants. But what could have been a massive advantage in terms of loyalty began to backfire while Tywin Lannister started the campaign which led to his tragic battle at Bronzegate against Stannis Baratheon. With thousands of homeless peasants searching a home and no lords or knights in sight, curious alliances formed. Near Sarsfield, thousands of westerners smallfolk rallied to the Karstark cause, making the population of the area explode. Some Essossi sellswords also began their own reign over the Westerlands population in places like the Crag or Crakehall. But in the end, there were overshadowed by a new contender in the southern Westerlands.

The name Clegane was a particularly hated one in the War of the Eight Kings. The name of Gregor 'the Mountain' Clegane inspired sheer terror, and with good reason. Riverlands, Westerlands, Crownlands, and Stormlands: all these areas had seen firsthand what this monster could do in the service of his master, Lord Tywin Lannister. At the head of the Mountain's Men, Gregor Clegane was the figure of how low humanity could descend when it had no values of any kind. The monster died in the aftermath of the failed Stormlands Campaign (in a truly horrible fashion), but before any raven could bring these welcome news to Clegane Keep, the younger brother of Gregor reappeared in the Westerlands. Sandor 'the Hound' Clegane was not a knight , and the last time everyone had seen him , the man who had been a Kingsguard had escaped King's Landing just before Tywin Lannister and Randyll Tarly saved the day . In the massacres and thousands of deaths which followed, the ultimate fate of the Hound had been largely forgotten, even if House Lannister as a whole took time to declare Sandor Clegane an outlaw and a coward, putting a (relative) large recompense of fifty dragons for whoever managed to bring back his head. With all the sellswords present in Westeros by the beginning of 300AC, surely many men would be willing to hunt a disgraced warrior. But all acts had unintended consequences. Instead of making Sandor Clegane a prey among the smallfolk of the Westerlands, it made him a hero of sorts. After the cruel and disastrous governance of the Mountain, the inhabitants living near Clegane Keep would have been ready to cheer anyone short of the Stranger. They were delighted to rally to a lonely Hound's cause. Reliable accounts are scarce to what happened next, but a few fortnights later, Sandor Clegane began to attack the keeps near the Clegane lands. Nearly undefended, guarded by knights too old or too young, the homes of many Knightly Houses were captured, their food reserves given to the starving common folk. Gold, silver, copper, and bronze, steel: all metals of value were taken, to buy and trade more food with the rare merchants still travelling across the Seven Kingdoms. Without any army to hunt these outlaws, the great lords dismissed the landed knights bringing the news of the defeats suffered. Losing a few keeps was sad, but with the Northern troops ravaging the heart of the West, other priorities had to be taken care of before going to take the bandits. This state of affair lasted long enough for Sandor Clegane and his outlaws to gather a redoubtable band and assault Silverhill, seat of House Serret. And the outlaws won, seizing vast quantities of grain, livestock but also silver and gold. Tion Serret, heir of House Serret, was captured along with many knights of his House. Taking inspiration of the Kingswood Brotherhood during the reign of Aerys II, the Hound and his lieutenants branded with a dog mark all the Serret household men on their backside. Tion Serret and his guards were then freed, the castle of Silverhill almost empty (some said half the women turned outlaws) humiliated but alive. The legend of the Hound was on the rise and since then many outlaws adopted his war cry of "Steal the rich! Feed the poor! " . House Lydden and Brax, when they learnt of these news, promised formidable sums for the head of Sandor Clegane, but in pure loss. The popularity of what everyone called the Brotherhood of the Hound never ceased to grow, and it had also unpleasant repercussions for the Paramountcy of the Westerlands.

Losing against a Stark army was one thing for the lords sworn to the Lannister. Be the witness of the complete collapse of Westerosi feudal power over your own lands was an even worse proposition. Even then, the monumental influence wielded by the Lannisters of Casterly Rock would have probably survived. But once again Cersei Lannister had to destroy her own power base. Immediately after the first messenger reported to the capital the defeat at Bronzegate, the Queen-Regent sent ravens to the Westerlands, ordering the mustering of an even bigger army than the one Tywin Lannister had led to war in 298AC. No further information was given, but the lords which received the messages didn't need it. The Western lords had just been told the army they had built their hopes upon was no longer a factor in the conflict. Many ravens being intercepted, the Riverlords and their noble prisoners were also aware of it. The treasons and defections could begin. To their deep sorrow, many Knightly and Noble Houses realised they had waited too long. Neither Edmure Tully, Rickard Karstark or the other senior commanders of King Robb Stark were really in the mood to restore order in the Westerlands. Some changes of allegiance were accepted, but it was usually those who had something still to offer at the table of negotiations. The new Lord Tytos Brax was liberated from his jail to rule as the lord of Hornvale (his father having died at the Second Battle of Riverrun) and Lady Alysanne Lefford surrendered the Golden Tooth. This last act was a monumental disaster on the Lannisters part: 1700 soldiers, including Ser Forley Prester, were taken prisoner and the supplies constraints upon the Northern forces stationed in the Westerlands eased considerably overnight. It didn't stop there: Edmure Tully soon married Alysanne Lefford; a clear sign House Lefford had definitely broken their allegiance to Casterly Rock. By the time Tywin Lannister was roasted in the Red Keep by an explosion of wildfire , the Banefort and Deep Den were the only bannersmen of the Lannisters still in nominal control of their lands (although Deep Den was encircled by forces stationed in Brax lands ). The reign of the Lions was shattered, but the real threat had not yet landed.

When one thinks about Casterly Rock, it is often to describe it as a Rock or an incredible stronghold. Before the Eight King's War, the natural defences of the Lannister castle had been enough to deter any aggressor. For good reasons. Any army suicidal to attack the Rock had to first neutralise Lannisport, and then had to take the forts guarding the only entrance inside. Even if all of these exploits were achieved, the Lannisters had still the possibility of bleeding tunnel by tunnel the attacking force, knowing the terrain and all the subtleties of the maze built hundreds of years ago. Casterly Rock was invulnerable. Or so it was thought. In reality, the situation was not that great. Ser Daven Lannister was a good commander, but his forces were by now mostly remnants of the remnants of the levies. Skirmishes and ambushes took their toll, as the Essossi sellswords and the Karstark cavalry did their best to burn the granaries of the villages feeding Lannisport and Casterly Rock. Not counting the smallfolk, servants, women and children, they were less than 200 household guards at any given time in this period inside the Rock, and most of them were by far crippled or unable to ride to war for a reason or another. Most of the elite troops were garrisoned in Lannisport or patrolling the coast, hunting bandits and sellswords. After all the Rock was invulnerable, right? The correct expression was "it should have been". But in 289AC, when the First Greyjoy Rebellion began , Lord Tywin Lannister had the ruthless idea to send all the Ironborn prisoners in the entrails of Casterly Rock, were they were exploited, mining and working without pay to add more wealth to the already legendary fortune of House Lannister. And when the Rebellion ended, most of these prisoners were sent back home (minus the dead). And they talked. Tywin Lannister had just given some of his worst enemies the knowledge to directly strike against the symbol of his wealth and power. In reality, with a port inside it and the fleet of Lannisport, attacking by sea was almost as suicidal as attacking by land. Except the fleet at Lannisport was right now destroyed , most of the sailors inside the Rock's harbour had been sent to other duties, and the Iron fleet had been seen attacking the Reach. The wharfs, docks and shipyards were almost empty of anything, and only a few soldiers and servants were working there.

The attack came without warning in the middle of the night. Asha Greyjoy and the captains following her had timed their plan almost perfectly; the few Lannister guards on duty in the harbour died without managing to sound the alarm. The Kraken force, in large part recruited from the island of Harlaw, followed the plan and rapidly rushed into the tunnels. Surprise didn't last, as even at night there were many servants or guards executing their duties in Casterly Rock. But the Ironborn were halfway to the Golden Gallery when finally the defenders realised they had a problem. A big one. By the time resistance began to be more organised and coherent, the Lion's Mouth had fallen to Asha Greyjoy. Ser Daven Lannister, rushing from Lannisport with all available troops, saw his reinforcements literally massacred by the scorpions and the ballista the Lannisters had built to protect their fortress. The gates were closed, and the Lannisport rescuers were powerless to help their cousins and families inside. The resistance inside the Rock lasted three days, but in the end the outcome was never in doubt. Casterly Rock, the invincible fortress, had fallen.

Asha Greyjoy elevated herself as Lady of Casterly Rock immediately and then began to take several measures. The smallfolk and the servants were spared, provided they were ready to swear their allegiance to the new mistress of the stronghold. The Lannisters over the age of 13 present were executed (when they had not perished in the battle), with only the bastards of the House being spared. This was the day House Lannister died.

For all his commanding abilities, Ser Daven Lannister was forced to order a retreat outside the range of the Rock's siege engines. It was the only move possible. To be fair, there were not any good options by this point, but the less than 4 000 men under his command had had enough of Lannister rule. Mutinies spread through the ranks, and Lannister commanders found their troops in open revolt. The arrival of a Volantene sellsword company named the Tiger's Fangs on the battlefield put a bloody end to the history of the Lions. Lannisport was partially sacked by the mercenaries, before a sally out of the Rock from the Ironborn destroyed the Volantenes and the survivors of House Lannister. Asha Greyjoy had triumphed. Ravens were sent to the Riverlands, trumpeting the change in leadership. Messengers were sent south to give the news to the King in the North. The conflict had taken a new unexpected turn, especially for the Lannister survivors of the Battle of the Four Armies...


	36. This Stag is Immortal

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. And I certainly don't like the ending of Season 5 of Games of Thrones either...

raw666: Asha is opportunist and intelligent, so exploiting the weakness of the Lannisters is definitely in her character. As far as negotiations goes, she has a lot of gold to bargain with. More gold than she will ever need in her life. That opens a lot of possibilities.

The fate of Tyrion will be revealed in a later chapter. For now, we're going back in the Reach and the Stormlands.

X59: And the best part of it is that it's absolutely canon, revealed by the fate of Aeron Greyjoy. Of course, it doesn't imply there were many others with him, but would Tywin have sent only one Ironborn to mine the entrails of Casterly Rock? I think not.

For now it's the sellswords who are mostly a problem. All the other sides are smart enough to know big battles are a non-affordable frivolity with winters coming. The mercenaries however are not that smart, some are even on the level of the Mountain subordinates.

And while Tyrion's reaction will be interesting, his fate and those of the other prisoners with him are not anymore in his hands.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks!

Guest(s): The problem is while Olenna, Willas, Garlan and Margaery Tyrell are very smart, they're not in command and they need generally time to ensure Mace's idiocy will not have long-lasting consequences.

In terms of politics, appearances, vassals' relationships and good propaganda, they have really no rival. The problem is this story, contrary to canon, relies even more on military acts than on politics backstabbing. And they lost Randyll Tarly, whose very importance was exactly to advise Mace on such a thing.

Also to note is the fact we are arriving to a point in the story where things generally took a bad turn for the Reach. The question is if the unity of the Reach is enough to compensate for their relative lack of experience on the battlefield...

Revan3363: Glad you liked my plans for Sandor Clegane.

Paul: Emmon Frey and Genna Lannister died at Casterly Rock. Cleos is still a prisoner at Riverrun for the time being. Sandor is leading a band which is a mix between the Kingswood Brotherhood, the Brotherhood without Banners, Robin Hood, all added with a touch of Clegane influence.

Sandor and Asha have other concerns for the time being than each other, that's all I'm going to say.

Yes, Theon is going to regain some importance, although it will not be for quite a while. Euron's reaction to this news will be shown, as will be Mace. Both might surprise you (though they will not learn of it immediately, as Asha didn't send them ravens to inform them).

Gremlin Jack: For the moment, the Hound and the Kraken zones of influence are not in contact with each other. Though who knows what may happen in the future...

TheAlagoano: the lords and knights who haven't been involved in any atrocities can hope to avoid the rope and the axe, though they may not escape the Wall. Those, who have, however...

 **This Stag is Immortal**

 **Winter's Dawn Part II**

 _"Surrender is not a word in Stannis Baratheon vocabulary."_ Ser Brynden Tully, 300AC.

 _"Stannis Baratheon is not vanquished. This man will only be vanquished when he is dead. And even then I would not let my guard down if I were you, your Grace. "_ Tyrion Lannister to King Robb Stark, 300AC.

 _"STANNIS! STANNIS ! STANNIS KING! STANNIS KING! "_ Battle cry of the Stormlands army at the Battle of the Kingswood.

It is said a man is never more dangerous than when he has lost everything he cares for. The saying was perfectly adapted to the character of King Stannis Baratheon. Time and time again, the second son of Lord Steffron Baratheon and Lady Cassana Baratheon suffered major reverses in his life. Only for each time climb up to retain power and status. Still, the Battle of the Four Armies was one turning point for the Baratheon King. In a single battle, not only King Stannis failed to take the capital for the second time, but half of his army was destroyed. Again. Personal losses were also a critical part of Stannis history. While Rolland Storm survived against all odds the battle (prisoner of the Starks he was ransomed immediately back by his King), Melisandre of Asshai, the Red Priestess who had proclaimed Stannis Azor Ahai, was dead. In the following days, the Master of Storm's End would learn his wife was dead too, having taken too literally the injunctions of R'hllor and the Red God religion, and thrown herself into the fires (some said the woman had never tolerated well the executions of member of House Florent, while others affirmed Lord Davos Seaworth pushed her in the flames to save Princess Shireen from the same fate).

Despite the defeat, the Stormlands army stayed loyal to Stannis. In truth, it was certainly due to the character of the King. While many in Westeros loathed the former Master of Ships as a dour, rigid, smileless man, the reality was that Stannis was a good general, one which walked in the mud with the common soldier, who didn't feast in a luxurious tent while the common soldier got cold in the night, who shared and endured all the privations his warriors took during their campaigns. This one was no exception. Even then, King Stannis would likely have suffered severe desertions in his camp if not for the lax control Mace Tyrell exerted over his bannersmen.

Indeed , learning of the Battle of the Four Armies, House Caswell, Bridges, Footly, Inchfield, Norridge and Roxton had mobilised all their remaining troops available and prepared to assail the army of King Stannis at the western edge of the Kingswood should the battle turn against the last Baratheon pretender. It did, but the Reach lords massed there were overconfident and paid for it. Of the 8 000 men mobilised there, less than a third were cavalry, and more than half were conscripted smallfolk levies which had really seen little military training. In fact, most of these men were wary of the winter approaching, and would have rather preferred being at home ensuring their families were ready for the cold and the snows. Not that it was the only mistake these lords made. Once news of the complete destruction of the capital was known, the Reach army under Lord Lorent Caswell followed the road, trailing at a slow pace towards the crossroads of the Kingsroad and the Rose Road, where the Stormlands army was supposed to be. Lord Caswell had given the order to camp for the night when King Stannis and 2 000 tired but extremely well motivated men went out of the woods and charged the poor sentinels. In strategic terms, it was worse than the Battle of Oxcross won by King Robb Stark. Unlike the Lannisters, very few men in the Reach thought of raising their swords, never mind forming the ranks, using torches or banding their bows. The battle was over before it even begun. 2500 men of the Reach ran fast enough to escape. Around 300 men died, including Lord Inchfield, Lord Footly and Lord Bridges. The rest, nearly 5 200 men, were made prisoner. In that number were included Lord Garth Norridge, Lord Mace Roxton and Lord Lorent Caswell.

The impact of this victory should not be understated. Before: a massive defeat. After: a glorious victory, while being seriously outnumbered by the enemy (never mind that a quarter of the enemy had never seen a sword fight in their lives). King Stannis also captured the entire train of supply of the Reach force, meaning his army could be now fed and paid without any deed to continue rationing. The numbers also were not a problem anymore. Having escaped the inferno of King's Landing with less than 4500 men, now the Stormlords saw hundred s of opportunists swirling to the Stag's banner. It was Bronzegate and Storm's End all over again, but this time there was no accusation of treachery, magic sorcery or other act against the Seven. Stannis Baratheon had won a decisive victory all by himself, which was going to have a serious impact on the rest of the war.

By going on the offensive in this manner, Lord Caswell and his friends had had to deplete the eastern defences of the Reach, which were not the most formidable of Westeros in any case. At a moment where Lord Mace Tyrell and Lord Leyton Hightower were mustering every man of age who could wield a spear to defend their coasts again the Ironborn threat, the Reach had just been left completely undefended from this direction. King Stannis Baratheon was not a man who was going to let pass chances like this. Under the leadership of Ser Justin Massey, 500 Stormlands warriors and 4000 freshly liberated Reach smallfolk marched westwards, with the command to rally the maximum of knights, smallfolk and lords to Stannis cause. At the same time, the king and the rest of his army marched towards Storm's End, rallying on their way the troops lost in the rapid succession of marches in the Kingswood.

What Stannis Baratheon hoped to do by that point remained a subject of controversy to this day. Unlike King Robb Stark, no one was under illusion that King Stannis would renounce to his claims over Westeros as a whole, but for the first time in months the cadet of Robert Baratheon seemed to do exactly that. Some historians have try to refute these claims , pointing the Code of Laws written by Stannis himself (who would not be fully completed until 331AC by his grand-daughter Cassana Baratheon ) and the plans to rebuild a new capital were hardly the plans of a man who was going to keep ruling over "only" the Stormlands and the Narrow Sea Houses . By the time Stannis had settled himself and his army at Storm's End, the Baratheon area of control extended to the Narrow Sea Houses and Dragonstone from the north to the island of Estermont to the south. With one notable exception. Tarth.

Of all the Rainbow Guard of Renly Baratheon by the time the Battle of Four Armies ended, only two were alive. Ser Emmon Cuy and Ser Robar Royce had lost their lives at the hand of their sworn brother Loras Tyrell. Lord Bryce Caron had died in the First Battle of King's Landing. Ser Guyard Morrigen had received an axe in his skull in the same battle, courtesy of Tyrion Lannister. Ser Parmen Crane disappeared in the inferno of the Battle of the Four Armies and was never seen again by mortal eyes. Ser Loras Tyrell was still alive, but he was currently an occupant of the dungeons of Storm's End. That left only Brienne of Tarth alive and free, Brienne the Blue to be exact. According to most witnesses, it was the opinion of Renly's former sworn sword which made Lord Selwyn of Tarth not bends the knee to King Stannis. It was not wise. While following the cause of Renly could be explained while the youngest Baratheon was still alive (though not in King Stannis's presence ) , following him while he was dead and his cause destroyed served no purpose and was ultimately very dangerous. Stannis, who had just ordered to Lord Davos Seaworth to bring back his daughter to Storm's End, did not appreciate the defiance. Since the First Battle of King's Landing, several small galleys had been rebuilt by the Stormlords, enough to retain a naval superiority over the western coast. Now these war galleys plus the survivors of King's Landing would be used to end this rebellion, while Salladhor Saan and his Lysene sellsails continued to prey on the Narrow Sea's shipping. Lord Davos Seaworth was put in command of the operation.

The Defiance of Tarth, as it became known, was a singular affair. A few days before Stannis gave his orders to his loyal admiral, a lowly knight in Tarth colours arrived on the island with a Valyrian blade and a singular story. According to his words, the sword had been formerly the propriety of Lord Tywin Lannister, but had been stolen from him in the chaos after Bronzegate and passed hand in hand until he recuperated it in the darkness of the Kingswood. What he didn't tell was all the men wielding the weapon had the unfortunate tendency to fall dead soon after, often in violent circumstances. It was one of the two Valyrian swords forged from the ancestral Stark sword Ice, but unlike King Robb's sword _Wolf's Paw_ , its twin sword forged a sinister reputation, almost as if no one but a Stark could wield it and survive.

When the attack upon the island came, neither Brienne of Tarth nor her father managed to stem the tide of Baratheon troops. Brienne the Blue fought as a knight, trying to force her enemy on open-battle. Lord Seaworth was a former smuggler, and used strategies more adapted to the reality of the battlefield, including fire arrows and scorpions from his war galleys. Brienne of Tarth perished with the Valyrian sword in her hands, and so did seven men of her House (although the number seven may have been brought by a septon). Lord Selwyn was executed for treason, and a low-born knight of the Stormlands named Ser Andrew became the new lord of Tarth. Of the Valyrian sword now called Black Dawn, a Stormlands men-at-arm managed to recuperate it. But the deaths and the tragedies didn't stop with the fall of Tarth for the owners of this sword.

By comparison, the campaign in the Reach was less nightmarish. Ser Rolland Storm, now legitimised as Ser Rolland Caron, had rallied the Dornish Marshes to King's Stannis cause, while Ser Justin Massey and his troops captured without great effort Tumbleton, Grassy Vale and finally Bitterbridge (through there, having the lord of the place hostage no doubt helped) .Could Stannis Baratheon have conquered the whole South before the nightmarish threat coming from the North forced him to enter a battle to save humanity? No one will ever know. Because in this seventh month of the year 300AC, just as the Battle of Oldtown entered its decisive stage, the impossible happened. A large fleet entered the Dornish Sea, a large number of transports full with troops. And at the top of their masts, they were floating a banner that no one had hoisted in Westeros for more than fifteen years. A red-three headed dragon on a sable field. The Targaryens had returned. The Eighth King had arrived...


	37. The Lannister trials

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire, I don't own the Starks and the Lannisters.

raw666: The short answer is "more than they need". Before Tywin, they mined the Rock and the Westerlands for centuries, all the while stocking huge quantities of precious metals in the entrails of the Rock. Asha is right now the wealthiest woman of the Seven Kingdoms.

The mines in the Westerlands right now aren't empty, but a lot of them have suffered plenty of damage, are under Stark control and the smallfolk who served in them are dead or gone. For all intent and purposes, it does not matter a lot in the short term if the mines are empty or not. Nothing will come out of them for many years.

The eight king will be involved in a chapter which is coming soon, and it is going indeed to make the situation in the South horribly complicated.

X59: Yep, that is the situation I went on, although this note of history will not be remembered as such, of course.

The quick answer to the question "Is Aegon the real deal or not?" is "We will never know." By that point, only two persons most likely know the truth: Varys and Illyrio. And they will die rather than reveal the truth...

Master of Dragons God: Thanks as always for the support.

Guest(s): To be fair Mace has power. Look at the big army he mustered in the books. The problem is he will never know how to correctly use it. I always thought it would have been better to let Stannis and Tywin bleed each other in canon, then extort the winner all the concessions they could.

By comparison, Euron is a sadist of epic proportions, but perfectly aware of what he wants and what he is about to do to obtain it.

Paul: Daven Lannister is camping with the Lannister remnants in the ruins of Tarbeck Hall. I have made my mind on Tyrion long ago, it is coming in this chapter.

Stannis and Shireen won't regret a lot Selyse, especially the mad woman she became at the end. Davos didn't kill the Florent woman, but he didn't waste his time trying to save her either.

The fight in the Kingswood was the decision of the lords involved alone, though Mace gave hints he wouldn't be sorry should Stannis lose his head in a battle.

The issue of the White Walkers will not be revealed until it's time (said in a grave and mysterious voice)!

The unnamed participants at Tarth were just knights, no more, no less. Varys has already travelled to another kingdom. Brienne's fate is not nice, but we all know she wouldn't have bowed to Stannis in a thousand years. And with Stannis the legitimate ruler of the Stormlands, her fate was sealed. And yes, the Valyrian sword will have its importance before the end.

Anyway, thanks for the review and enjoying my story.

TheAlagoano: Good quote! It's sure the arrival of the Golden Company and their allies won't be the one-sided invasion of the books. On the other hand, Stannis isn't really in control of the whole south either...

Matt Quinn: Yes, Stannis just can't catch a break, can he?

 **The Lannister trials**

 **Winter's Dawn Part III**

 _"Don't worry. I will come back! "_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

 _"Who would have believed the head of a Greyjoy could be so expensive?"_ Ser Brynden 'the Blackfish' Tully, 300AC.

 _"You want a fight, and you want a sword, Kingslayer. You will have neither."_ Lord Edmure Tully, 300AC.

To say the fall of Casterly Rock arrived at a bad moment for House Lannister was an understatement of epic proportions. By that point in the Eight Kings War, the Lannister forces didn't exist anymore. All that were left were hundreds of lords, knights and men-at-arms prisoners all over Westeros (the majority being in the Riverlands, followed by the Westerlands, the Stormlands and the Crownlands).The only bargaining ship left in the Lion's paws was gold. Lots of gold. No doubt, thought the men currently fighting the rats in Riverrun, Pinkmaiden and Harrenhal dungeons, the lord of Casterly Rock surely would pay the ransom to free them? A Lannister pay his debts was a saying so popular freedom appeared as a certainty. By taking the Rock, Asha Greyjoy had just destroyed all of those convictions.

In the camp near the ruined city of King's Landing, unaware of the massive earthquake that just devastated the foundations of their House, Tyrion and Lancel Lannister struggled a brief time to know who was going to be the new Lord of Casterly Rock and the new master of the 530 soldiers left after the Battle of the Four Armies. Ser Lancel Lannister was in the process of losing badly when a mounted messenger brought King Robb Stark three news which would shape the course of the conflict from then. The first was of course the fall of Casterly Rock. The second was the death of Lord Hoster Tully, King Robb's grandfather, from a long and painful illness. The third was the confirmation of a massive wildling army marching in the direction of the Wall.

While the second announce was sadly expected (Lord Hoster having been bed-ridden before even the beginning of the war), the first and the last were news the Northern and Riverlords would have traded for better ones .With the disappearance of Lord Commander Jeor Mormont in the Last Great Ranging, the Northern troops had to go to the Wall in strength immediately. With the notable exception of the Karstark troops (still in the Westerlands), the Manderly forces (patrolling the Trident) and the Bolton ones (garrisoning the Crownlands), most of the Northern army marched northwards with all celerity. King Robb Stark rushed to Riverrun with his sisters, where he assisted to the burial of his grandfather, before following his soldiers to war against the wildlings. Secret instructions were also given to Lord Edmure Tully and Ser Brynden Tully, orders which bode a very ugly future for the Lannisters.

With hindsight, the decision taken by the Starks and the Tullys were entirely predictable. Asha Greyjoy had under control Casterly Rock, Lannisport, and was in the process of expanding her control in the Westerlands smashing various Essossi sellswords around Kayce and Castamere, rallying dozens of fighters and warriors to her cause. The men under the Kraken Lady's banner had also tons of gold at their disposition. What had the Lannisters survivors? Nothing. When Tyrion Lannister and the hundreds of war prisoners arrived to Riverrun, it was to observe they had been preceded by a Greyjoy delegation. Lord Tristifer Botley ,newly self-proclaimed Lord of Castamere ( a further humiliation for House Lannister ) leading the emissaries , gave the terms of his Lady : the allegiance of House Greyjoy of Casterly Rock would go to the Starks , but Theon Greyjoy , legitimate Lord of the Iron Islands , had to be freed ,and King Euron was to be recognised as an enemy of the North . In exchange, one million gold dragons were promised to be paid to the Kingdom of the North and the Trident. And of course, the surviving Lannisters had to be taken care of, in one manner or another.

Despite the protestations of Tyrion Lannister and his last sworn swords, the deal was accepted by Lord Edmure Tully in the name of his King. House Lannister was officially no more, and the Riverlords wasted no time in asking for a trial to judge Ser Jaime Lannister, Tyrion Lannister and the other major figures of the Lions. It must be said there were quite an abundance of charges: regicide, kinslaying, incest, murder, bribery, conspiracy to commit murder, violation of guest laws, violation of war customs, rape, manslaughter, the list was endless. Worse, for the Lannisters that was, many disgraced servants who had served Queen-Regent Cersei and her family had managed to survive the inferno which destroyed the capital. And while usually some kings and princes would have affirmed their words were invalid, Lord Edmure Tully was not of this opinion. The eight days that followed described a frightening picture of what King's Landing had become in the last years under the incompetent rule of Robert I , the cruel and vile one of Joffrey I , and the violent and bloodthirsty of Cersei Lannister (acting as regent of Tommen I ) . Apparently, the only vow Ser Jaime Lannister had not violated was his oath of silence to King Aerys: the Kingslayer had apparently murdered all the pyromancers in the knowledge of the wildfire plot, ensuring nothing could avoid the annihilation of King's Landing. The rest of House Lannister didn't fare any better. Cleos Frey, in spite of being a knight of the Twins in name, had conspired in the name of his father Emmon Frey to supplant Lord Stevron as Lord of the Twins. Ser Lancel Lannister had been a lover of Cersei Lannister, and had been instrumental in the murder of Robert I. Some knights of Casterly Rock and Lannisport had been recruited to kill in cold blood the bastards and the heirs of diverse Noble Houses in Westeros to boost the power and influence of House Lannister. Only Tyrion Lannister, for a time, managed to avoid the charges (usually by denouncing the real culprits, cousins or family involved), but in the end his participation in the failed attempt to free his brother at Riverrun was the turning point. Excellent rhetoric could not change the fact the Imp had willingly violated guest laws and the former Hand of the King was declared guilty with the rest.

The sentences were not long to be decided. Tyrion Lannister, Lancel Lannister and 642 men were each declared guilty of at least one major accusation raised against them. The condemned men were given the alternative of being executed on the spot, or join the Night Watch. With the camps and Riverrun full of terrifying rumours concerning about the horrors of the lands Beyond-the Wall,"only" 267 men chose to join the Black Brothers. These men would be known in history as the Black Lions, led by the infamous Lord Tyrion Lannister. The rest were decapitated by the Riverlords, quite happy to end forever some old quarrels between the Westerlands and the Riverlands. Men like Lord Addam Marbrand and Lord Quentin Banefort who had been judged innocent in the trials bent the knee, and would continue to exercise control over their ancestral lands. That left only the case of Ser Jaime Lannister.

If there was a certain thing during the trials, it was the fact that Ser Jaime Lannister having lost a hand had not deprived the man of his arrogance and self-righteousness. Each accusation against the Kingslayer, no matter how grave, was followed by a sardonic reply. The news of House Lannister, dreadful as they were, were not enough to plunge the former Kingsguard in despair. Never ceasing to claim his right to a trial by combat, the eldest son of the deceased Lord Tywin Lannister was seen by the witnesses as one of the very symbols of everything that went wrong into the knighthood imposed by the Faith of the Seven. It was clear and limpid to all present the man was searching to a way out, all the while still trying to kill the men he perceived as his enemies. The Riverlords were delighted to crush these hopes of the Kingslayer dying a sword in his hands. Unlike so many Westerners taking the black , losing their heads or going back home , Ser Jaime Lannister went back to Riverrun dungeons in chains ... but without his tongue : for all the lies and insults he had proclaimed during his life , most lords present at Riverrun believed they could very well be happy with a silent Lion . Ser Jaime Lannister would not be seeing the light of day until more awful circumstances forced the hand of Ser Brynden Tully to act.

The end of the Lannister Trials at Riverrun marked in history tales and books the end of the first part of the Eight King's War for the Kingdom of the North and the Trident (despite being mostly conquered the Westerlands would never been officially a realm under King Robb Stark's rule ) .Apart from the Iron Islands and the Vale , everything north of the Gold Road in Westeros was de facto under the control of King Robb Stark (Deep Den and the Lyddens had surrendered after the capture of Casterly Rock ) . They were still minor groups of bandits like the Brotherhood without Banners operating in the Riverlands , but their popularity was definitely coming to a halt , as smallfolk and nobles alike made their preparations for the upcoming winter , buying large quantities of grain from Pentos and other Free Cities . According to most reliable witnesses, Lord Beric Dondarrion was finally dead (although no one managed a clear interpretation of how he ended his life), his squire Edric Dayne returned to Starfall, and the rest of the Brotherhood had degraded to a state where it was virtually impossible to differentiate them from low-born bandits.

With Theon Greyjoy returning to the Iron Islands to contest the claim of his uncle Euron III Greyjoy and several knights going to the Vale to rally Vale lords (and their food resources) to their cause, the war appeared in good way to be won for the subjects of King Robb Stark. Little did they know, the real conflict was about to begin. Far in the North, a long-thought extinct enemy had re-emerged to destroy the realms of humanity. And its wrath was literally unimaginable...


	38. Terror in the Citadel

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire, I don't own Euron Greyjoy, who appears in this story far too little times.

raw666: It is going to have significant implications, though the name of the man slighted has to be taken into account. This is Jaime Lannister we're talking about, a man who has spent his whole life ignoring, shaming and making his best to violate every important Westerosi law. Or at least that is how it's seen by a foreign eye. But it will introduce interesting law changes, especially in the North.

Theon is going to have a lot of hard moments when he see the ugly reality of the Iron Islands. The pill will be bitter to swallow, especially with his sister having the Rock as her new base.

X59: Lancel chose the black. He is young and doesn't want to die. Like some, however, he is going to change his mind when he will see what sort of opponents are coming out of the shadows.

Theon will have the support of Harlaw, yes, and Pyke if he manages to convince the men here to abandon Euron's cause. Rebuilding and restoring order is going to be hard, make no mistake.

Jaime's fate is not going to be a happy one. Let's just leave it at that for the moment.

As for Lysa Arryn, her main problem for the moment is the fact the majority of her bannersmen is less and less enthusiastic at the idea of following her orders. More so because the Starks won and the Lannisters lost.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for the review.

Guest(s): Here it comes...

Paul: Not that is important, it was one of Varys agents, however the "curse" won't make exceptions for him...

Lyle Crakehall took the black. He wasn't totally innocent in the Riverlands campaign, but his actions still were honourable compared to most men in Tywin's army. Plus as you said, he loves to fight. Podrick still follows Tyrion. His part in this story will be a major one when the true war begins at the Wall. Bronn of course chose to take the black. Jaime did not benefit from meeting Brienne, and is putting the arrogant behaviour because it's the only thing he has left. His cousins were spare, but had to take the black (too young to have participated in the rapes and the atrocities).

Pycelle died in the fighting in the Red Keep, from the sword of one of Cersei supporters, who was convinced the Grand Maester was going to prefer Tyrion to her (and for once she was correct).

Lancel took the black, as did Boros Blount. This Kingsguard was not going to be freed, but his choice to join the Night's Watch will not make his courageous. Far from it...

M-Silver: I suppose the RLJ is Rhaegar-Lyanna-Jon? The simple answer is: no one knows, and the answer won't appear in this story. If Jon was, only Eddard Stark and Lord Reed knows the truth. One is dead, and the other will not for reasons coming later be a welcome guest at Winterfell for the long-term future.

Ygritte is with the wildling army right now, and isn't really important enough (simple spearwife for now) to appear. She will make an appearance, I promise.

Daenerys will come late, GRRM has made sure of that, and I didn't create an AU too different at the beginning. She's going to arrive before the fate of Westeros is decided in a grand battle for the fate of humanity. She will not have a good relationship with Aegon, seeing him as a usurpator, not that it will really matter in the end.

Matt Quinn: Theon is going to come home with troops at his back (the alternative is simply suicidal). The question is if they can be trusted and if it will be enough.

Ah yes, Tristifer and Hagan's daughter... (grin)...

 **Terror in the Citadel**

 **The Battle of Oldtown**

 _"It was a diversion, and we fell for it."_ Lord Garlan Tyrell, 300AC.

" _They don't die! They just don't stay dead! We need reinforcements! Immediaaarrrrgh..."_ unknown guard during the Battle of Oldtown, 300AC.

Oldtown. By a large margin, the most ancient town of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Oldtown was ancient when the Conqueror came and unified by dragon fire the realm. Oldtown was already there when the Children of Forest and the First Men were defeated by the military force of the Andals. As several maesters like to pretend to this day, a town was already there when the Dawn Age began, ten thousand years before the Eight King's war. Several times sacked, burned, and victim of reavers' raids, the city of Oldtown had survived, to become with the Kings of the High Tower one of the greatest cities of the known world. Ruled by House Hightower, the vast labyrinth of alleys, streets and canals was the home of approximately 300 000 inhabitants. With monuments like the High tower, the Starry Sept and the Maesters Citadel, Oldtown was widely acclaimed as a beautiful city, one which didn't have the awful smell and the putrid appearance of King's Landing.

If the domains of Lord Leyton Hightower were known for their tranquillity and peace all over the year 299AC, the next year broke the conviction the Reach was going to emerge untouched by the massive Westerosi civil war. First, House Florent, House Fossoway and dozens of Knightly Houses were accused of treason, with Lord Alekyne Florent himself begging Lord Leyton Hightower for protection from House Tyrell. These retaliations against known supporters of Stannic Baratheon were nothing however compared to the storm which came next. King Euron III Greyjoy attacked by surprise the Shield Islands and the Arbor, pulverising in the process the naval might of the Reach. All across the Redwyne Straits and the Sunset Sea, the Reach sailors found themselves preys against the Ironborn reavers. Ser Desmond Redwyne himself led the remnants of the proud Redwyne fleet into the Whispering sound and the Honeywine. The situation was dramatic even for the most optimists strategists of the Reach: the western coastal defences were completely unprepared, and even the most talented captain could not doubt there was only one major target (besides Highgarden) which had not received the wrath of the 'Crow's Eye '. Oldtown.

Finally realising staying over the quarrels of the realm was not possible in this instance; Lord Leyton ordered the muster of Oldtown's forces as soon as the news of the battle of the Arbor came. Baelor Hightower was charged to build war galleys to replace the Redwyne losses, Guntor Hightower built the harbour defences, Garth 'Greysteel' trained 5000 men coming from the levies to support the city watch and the Hightowers household guards and Humfrey Hightower travelled to the Free Cities to persuade the Archons and magisters to send them sellswords and sellsails. While these efforts were certainly impressive (and expensive), in many ways it was too little and too late. In the last century, the defenders of Oldtown had grown complacent. Too complacent, and worse, too many of them exhibited a certain disdain towards the threat represented by the Ironborn, calling them scum of the seas, pirates, murderers and rapists. Not that it was a bad description, but it forgot the essential: Ironborn lived for battle. The City Watch of Oldtown had not fought anything more dangerous than tavern fights in the last decade. The Ironborn were battle-hardened, and did not know doubt or fear.

The jaws of the trap were already closing at the instant the Hightower family was mustering its resources. Euron III Greyjoy led himself a surprise attack on Three Towers, wiping out in an afternoon House Costayne and the knights sworn to it. The head of Lord Tommen Costayne was displayed on the gates of his home on a pike, and the castle was burnt afterwards. The castle of Blackcrown was similarly assaulted at the same time by Lord Alyn Orkwood, and while Lady Alysanne Bulwer, a young girl, was at Highgarden as a maid of Lady Margaery and so avoided a dreadful fate, her mother, Victaria Bulwer born Tyrell, was raped and then murdered in the sack of the keep. These raids and destructions, happening all along the south-western Reach coast, finally convinced Lord Mace Tyrell to shift his forces to defend Oldtown and the surrounding Noble Houses. Unfortunately for the lord of Highgarden, he had waited too long in changing his strategy.

While the Reach armies were waiting at the mouth of the Mander an assault that never seemed to come, the soldiers garrisoning Oldtown had already been forced to repulse a spoiling attack. While the authorities were prompt in shouting victory, it was quickly apparent it had only been a reconnaissance-in-force to survey the defences of the harbour. The Ironborn lost five longships for this diversion, but these were well spent. While the guards and sailors glorified themselves with their exploits of the day on the taverns and whorehouses, the Ironborn were passing the gates of Oldtown unopposed. With each day more raids happening, the Reach refugees were coming by the thousands to search safety behind Oldtown's walls. Except, of course, some of these "refugees" were not refugees at all, but the first part of Euron Greyjoy's plan.

The Crow's Eye knew very well his entire fleet was not enough to breach the massive walls of the Hightowers, nor he had the manpower to storm the naval defences. But no citadel was truly invulnerable, and where steel and iron were sure to fail, magic would find a way. Among the dozens of reavers infiltrated in a city, there were wizards reduced in a state of slavery by the King of the Iron Islands. That was the most logical assumption decided by the historians to what happened next. As the sun began to set over the Sunset Sea after a cloudy and cold day, the plan was put into action. The first sign of something unnatural and wrong happening was the screams. In the houses and slums of Oldtown where thousands of refugees were passing their nights, thousands of screams echoed, sinister warning of something awful starting. The City Watch had no time to investigate. The screams stopped, and thousands of creatures sallied out the houses to attack them. These beings had been no doubt human before, but now were half-dead in appearance and willing to massacre anything in their way. Several nicknames would be found during and after the battle for these former humans. The dead reborn. The enraged. The servants of the Crow. With black eyes without iris, a livid skin, a will to kill anything alive and no pain suffered, this magical and monstrous threat proved more than a match for the defenders of Oldtown. Especially as waves of monsters came from several parts of the city and were unleashed in Oldtown. This proved beyond doubt that whatever it was, it had not been an isolated incident or a new disease coming from far-away Essos or Sothoryos. Whoever had done this act had done it willingly, coordinating the former humans to create the maximum of panic.

It was a success. While the Hightower soldiers were busy slaughtering what had been days ago their own citizens, 4 000 Ironborn under Lord Alyn Orkwood led a direct attack on the harbour, drawing even more chaos and confusion in this black night. In the end, the defenders prevailed. However dreadful the half-dead were, the victims of this magic were quite limited in tactics and intelligence, and the arrival of the sun proved a moral and tactical boost enough to eradicate them. The Ironborn force proved more redoubtable, burning dozens of war galleys and ravaging quite a large part of the quarters in proximity with the harbour, but was crushed under the numbers when Lord Garlan Tyrell arrived from Highgarden with fresh and experienced troops. Roughly 3500 Ironborn died (including Lord Alyn Orkwood himself) and 40 longships were destroyed.

In spite of losing nearly 5500 soldiers and around 20 000 inhabitants, the Reach had emerged victorious on that day. Or had they? As the men began to carry the thousands of corpses outside the city to burn them, messengers were sent to the Citadel to ask for more maesters, healers and medicine students to help the men , women and children in need. What they found was a bloodbath. Lord Leyton Hightower had a stroke (although not a fatal one) receiving the news, learning that half of the permanent Citadel members were dead. Euron III Greyjoy had never been after Oldtown wealth: gold, wine, silver, tapestries, weapons, artworks, and women; all of this had been already taken in quantities in the sack of the Shield Islands, the Arbor and the keeps of the Reach. But the vaults of the maesters had things in them a knowledgeable man would kill to have. And the Crow's Eye was such a man. The first soldiers to enter the vaults under the Citadel reported only empty rooms: the Ironborn had somehow managed to take everything. The surviving maesters refused to disclose what had been in their vaults in the aftermath of the battle, affirming what had been stocked there were theirs and theirs alone, and that the privileges granted to them by House Hightower authorised this. They were right to do so, indeed. Otherwise, it is not stretching imagination that Lord Garlan Tyrell would have thrown them from the top of the High Tower on the spot. But silence would not be their salvation, as King Euron III prepared to unleash one of the most terrible weapons of Westerosi history in this world...


	39. The Mad Widow

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Vale of Arryn and its absence in most of the books either.

darthas: Let's be serious, the maesters had nothing alive in the vaults of the Citadel (otherwise it would be long dead). Doesn't mean it can't be dangerous and magical...

raw666: It is not really the fact they hoarded the knowledge in the first place which will cause their doom. More the fact they erased any means for humanity to fight effectively against these new threats.

X59: In this case, the magic done was relatively simple as it destroyed the minds and partially the bodies of the victims. These were not really dead people, just persons having the appearance of corpses (to be fair they would have died in a few days from the magical damage). But as everyone rushed to kill and burn them, the soldiers did not see really the difference (not that it mattered in the end).

Generally in canon, the Reach leadership is seen as terribly arrogant, with few knights and lords having the intelligence not to underestimate a foe. The problem is right now they have won technically a victory, and so are unlikely to measure accurately Euron's threat. The Reach smallfolk is right now experiencing a lot of doubt towards Mace Tyrell and his senior leadership.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks as always for the support.

Guest(s): Here is the new chapter!

Paul: He used his warlocks to inflict a sort of magical disease on a minor proportion of Oldtown population, making them zombies-like and enraged beyond measure. And no he didn't take it in the vaults of the Citadel...

Sarella/Alleras managed to escape, though I'm uncertain if I want to give her a big role in the future.

The moderate captains are going to be horrified by Euron's action and will plan to desert him once they realise how insane he is. Unfortunately, it may already be too late. Euron is going to unleash all his remaining forces against the army of Highgarden.

Matt Quinn: Let's just say not everything will be useful to Euron from what he snatched in the vaults. He will have very little time before the Reach army and navy comes calling, and so will have to use all the quickest weapons at this disposition. Which is going to be bad enough.

 **The Mad Widow**

 **War comes to the Vale Part I**

 _"The North won their war, while we did nothing. Remind me to never trust what get out of this woman's mouth."_ Ser Lyn Corbray, 300AC.

 _"Lysa Arryn is mad and her son is a boy who will never manage to ride a horse by himself. Sitting a dwarf on the Eyrie would be a more reasonable choice."_ Ser Symond Templeton, 300AC.

 _"Knights of the Vale! Eighteen years ago, we rose to strike down a mad king! Will we stay in our homes when a mad widow slap us in the face and treat us like dogs?"_ Lord Yohn Royce, 300AC.

When Lady Lysa Arryn tried Tyrion "the Imp" Lannister for the murder of the Lord Paramount of the Vale Jon Arryn in 298AC, many expected the knights of the Eyrie and the East to enter the War of the Eight Kings (though of course it was not named like that at the time) as soon as possible on the side of the North. Lord Tywin Lannister's ability to remember slights and grudges against his family was legendary, and no one doubted in Westeros that should the Lions emerge victorious from the Westerosi civil war, the Vale and the Arryns would be next on the list of the Houses the master of Casterly Rock wanted to be exterminated. It was with a certain military logic, as a result, that the main Lannister army initially rushed to the Trident, trying to prevent the armies of the North and the Vale forces which were no doubt marching out of the Bloody Gate to unite. Lord Tywin Lannister shouldn't have hurried: the risk of the two armies uniting didn't exist, as the Vale forces hadn't been mustered. For that matter, no Vale lord had even received a call to arms.

At first the lords sworn to the Eyrie thought there had been a mistake. Ravens were not invulnerable to any sort of problems; it was certainly a minor delay, nothing more. But as time passed and the Northern and Western armies fought in the Riverlands, the knights and nobility of the East were forced to admit the cause of the problem laid elsewhere. With the massive disillusion they weren't going to fight in this war, some second sons of the Vale lords decided they might as well try their chance on Renly's side to gain glory, lands and gold. They were not the only one to leave the East: hundreds of sellswords followed them, going in service of one side or another. That did not mean the lords of the Vale stayed inactive. Lady Lysa Arryn's behaviour was both contrary to the Tullys and Arryns honour. Led by Lord Yohn Royce, several of the most powerful bannersmen of the Arryn went to the Eyrie to ask for permission of their liege lady to enter the war on the side of the Starks, mentioning honour, old alliances and the disgust they felt towards the Lannisters as sufficient reasons to participate.

They were rudely refused. Lysa Arryn's health had never been good, but by the beginning of 299AC, it was her mental health which declined. The lady of the Vale was now paranoid in the extreme, was challenging every speech of her bannersmen and shouted everywhere the Eyrie were impregnable. Such words destroyed whatever credit Lysa Arryn had ever had among the lords of her deceased husband. Unfortunately, the lords lacked the means to challenge her. Following the departure of Ser Brynden "the Blackfish" Tully from the Vale, Ser Donnel Waynwood became the Knight of the Bloody Gate, and accepted the orders of his lady that the Bloody Gate would remain closed to any army, no matter the direction they came from. With Nestor Royce in command of the Gates of the Moon and his relation with the main House branch weakened, Lady Lysa Arryn went on to informally establish an alliance between the Arryns of Gulltown, the Waynwoods and the Graftons.

This was not well received by the nobles, especially as it came with the news of Renly's death in the South, the death of Robar Royce at the hands of Loras Tyrell, and the massacre at Storm's End and Bitterbridge of the quasi-totality of the second sons who had ridden to war. As the conflict turned in favour of the Starks, the argument of Lysa Arryn that the war would bring them nothing went increasingly on deaf ears. It did not help that Nestor Royce did most of the real work to rule the Vale in her name, while Lysa and her son remained in the Eyrie. Several guards like Ser Marwyn Belmore who had strong pro-war sympathies were fired from their positions in the Arryn household. Then came the First Battle of King's Landing and the narrow victory of the Lannister-Tarly alliance. In some ways, the turn taken by events could hardly have been worse for the knights of the East. With Tyrion Lannister powerless, most of the Mountain clan troops he had recruited were now without occupation, and came back home with their new armours and steel weapons. The raids which started in 300AC were something the Vale warriors had never experienced before: battle-hardened, well-equipped Mountain raiders, with the audacity to fight knights or at least heavy infantry on equal ground. Losses in men, food and supplies exploded, but the calls for the Eyrie to send punitive expeditions went unheard. Lord Royce, Lord Redfort, Lord Belmore and Lord Corbray sent party of knights to force the raiders to retreat back to the mountains, but without the authorisation to deploy their full strength against this threat (which they never did obtain) the raiders simply went to raid some other undefended place. The situation wasn't untenable, but unease was growing at an alarming rate. With the Starks ravaging the West and the Stags and the Lions fighting in the Stormlands, most Westerosi began to lose all respect they had for the Arryn line. That Dorne was staying neutral was understood: the murder of Elia Martell had sent to the Seven Hells relationships between Sunspear and the Iron Throne. But as the madness of Lysa Arryn became evident even to an idiot, people began to whisper if it was the time to find another master for the Eyrie. For the moment, this title went to Robert Arryn, a whiny and sickly eight-year old child. To say the child was unsuited to be a Lord Paramount was an understatement of the highest order. At eight, Robert, nicknamed SweetRobin by his mother, had not weaned from his mother's breast and had the health and the intelligence of a five year old child. A dim-witted and particularly slow five year old child. From the lowest beggar to the highest lord, the population of the Vale heard the rumours spreading, most concluding what a disgrace the only son of Jon Arryn was to his most ancient and noble family.

Eventually, something had to give, as in this era of Westeros weakness could only attract predators. In the Vale case, it was a double shock which woke up most of the Vale. The first was of course the Battle of the Four Armies, which saw the destruction of the Iron Throne and most of King's Landing. For all intent and purposes, the Vale's illusory allegiance to the rightful king of Westeros was worth less than nothing now. The second was the battle of Strongsong where forces of House Belmore trapped a relative massive force of two hundred Mountain clan warriors and exterminated them to the last. The warriors formerly in service of the Lannisters had been fooled in believing the fortress was empty of defenders, while it was totally false. This victory, however, proved the Mountain clans were not only able to make skirmishes and ambushes, but also were willing to raid even the biggest castles if they thought they had a chance of success. The inaction of House Arryn of the Eyrie was just the act which broke the already badly weakened peace of the East.

Minor lords started to call their levies; even whey hadn't manifested any motivation to fight bandits before. Some sellswords were caught attacking convoys transporting food and diverse valuable objects, including weapons. In this atmosphere of imminent war, the fact that Harrold Hardyng was summoned to the Eyrie was hardly surprising. Known for the dubious exploit of already having fathered two bastard daughters at his age, "Harry the Heir" as he was nicknamed, was the ward of Lady Anya Waynwood, had been knighted by Lord Yohn Royce, and more importantly was Robert Arryn's only heir.

Obeying to the order of the Lady of the Eyrie, the young man went to the citadel of the sky with a few Waynwood guards, and while the rest of the party took a pause here, Ser Harrol Hardyng began the perilous ascension which led to the Eyrie. He was never seen again alive.

The morning after, Nestor Royce and all the persons present in the Gates of the Moon heard screams and saw a person falling from the Moon Gate, a fall of six hundred foot. As the smallfolk and knights rushed in the valley below, they recognised the lifeless body of Harrold Hardyng. The Waynwood knights present at the Gates of the Moon didn't waste any time to escape. Orders from the Eyrie arrived too late to catch all of the men of Hardyng's party. War was now unavoidable.

While no one knew what had pushed Lady Lysa Arryn to break guest laws and kill the only person who could carry the name after her son, the consequences were now impossible to avoid. Lady Anya Waynwood was the first to raise her banners in rebellion, followed by Lord Yohn Royce, and then House Belmore, House Redfort and several others. The time for peace was over; war had finally come to the Vale...


	40. The Eight King Rises

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Blackfyre Rebellions and House Targaryen.

raw666: Baelish is currently at Highgarden as an honoured guest. He tried to act by raven as currently there's a lot of people who wants to kill him between the Reach and the Vale, but his efforts to preserve the status quo obviously failed thanks to Lysa. The North sent a delegation, but it's all they can afford with the threats coming from beyond the Wall.

As for Asha, no one is particularly happy making peace with the Ironborn, but gold and winter approaching have somewhat limited their options.

X59: The Northern knights will arrive during it, not that it matters as they will be blocked at the Bloody Gate by unforeseen circumstances. Lysa has descended into madness right now, and she is so far removed from reality no one is going to negotiate seriously with her.

As for Littlefinger, he stayed with the Tyrells because elsewhere everyone (save Dorne) wants him dead. Including Robb, Catelyn, Stannis, the Iron Bank and several others parties.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for the review.

Guest(s): Here we go...

TheAlagoano: Peace ends for Dorne in this chapter; now nearly everyone has entered the conflict.

Paul: Lysa killed Harry the Heir because she was convinced everyone conspired against her, and killed one of the rare persons who had not the intelligence to do so. Harold Hardyng was not a good person, but he didn't deserve this fate in this story. Like a lot of characters who died in ASOIAF...

Robert Arryn will die sooner or later, and you can count on Jon Arryn's line being extinct. Assuming Robert is really his son (and there are some doubts there ), the boy is so weak it will be a minor miracle if he survived a winter in time of peace as his health is far from good. With everything happening in 300AC, a lot of lords have no interest in seeing him live long enough to sire heirs (assuming he has the capacities to do it).

Marwyn is going to make several appearances in the East. As for the errors will look at them and correct if needed.

Revan3363: Thanks! Most of the Vale lords have definitely pro-Stark tendencies, but for now they're busy with their civil war.

 **The Eight King Rises**

 **The Stag and the Dragon Part I**

 _"All Hail King Aegon the Sixth of the Name, King of the Andals, Rhoynar and First Men, Defender of the Faith, Lord of the Seven Kingdom and Protector of the Realm!"_ Prince Oberyn Martell, 300AC.

 _"And here comes another King! Let's hope he lasts longer than the others."_ Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, 300AC.

" _Another usurper, this time in Dorne"_ King Stannis Baratheon, 300AC.

The arrival of a young man pretending to be Aegon Targaryen in 300AC on the soil of Dorne was one of the most debated points in the history of the Eight Kings War, an impressive feat given the number of events which are to this day re-analysed and changed depending the point of view of the man writing the text. It was hardly unexpected. The babe known as Aegon Targaryen, son of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, had by all accounts had its skull crushed in the Red Keep in 283AC at the hands of Ser Gregor Clegane. Lord Tywin Lannister had presented his corpse along with his sister's Rhaenys Targaryen, and it seemed that was the end of it. The young man who landed at Planky Town had the Targaryen and Dornish traits one would have expected from a son of Rhaegar and Elia Martell, yes, but in some ways, it hardly mattered.

With the destruction of King's Landing by the vast quantities of wildfire stocked in secret locations by Aerys II, every lord, knight and smallfolk had been brutally reminded why having a Targaryen on the throne was a very bad idea. People were reminded the disastrous reigns of Maegor the Cruel and Aegon IV the Unworthy. There was also the small issue of Robert's Rebellion. The Baratheons, the Tullys, the Starks, the Lannisters, the Arryns , all these Great Houses save the Tyrells and the Martells had in one manner or another rebelled against the Targaryens and been willing participants in casting them down from the Iron Throne. While these former Lords Paramount were dead, their descendants and their bannersmen were not going to tolerate the return of the dragon banners in Westeros. There were also the issue of the two men swearing Aegon Targaryen was the legitimate king of Westeros: Varys, former master of Whisperers was one of the most traitorous men of the world these days; Jon Connington, one time confident and friend of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, had disappeared years ago after being thrown out of the Golden Company. The fact that Varys had served so many kings, most of them not fit to assume the responsibilities of a knight, let alone a king, was another black mark on the reputation of the new pretender. Jon Connington was no shining knight either: he was known as the best friend of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen twenty years ago, a man ready to forsake his vow of allegiance to Storm's End for his friendship with his Prince.

It appeared Aegon Targaryen and Jon Connington had previously thought about debarking in the Stormlands and then searching Dorne's support to help their troops conquering the throne, but the Battle of the Four Armies and the horrible weather (several massive storms wrecked the eastern coastline of Westeros at that period) had forced a change of strategy, forcing the sellswords and the Golden Company under Aegon's command to sail directly in direction of Sunspear. There, they found a mixed welcome. Due to the carnage of the ongoing civil war and the destruction of House Lannister, the peace faction was regaining strength. Supported by House Yronwood, Vaith, and Ladybright, several knights and other powerful persons at court were openly affirming Dorne should better stay out of this war. As the sack of countless castles and the generalised destructions and murders in the Riverlands, the Crownlands and the Westerlands had proven, this was not the kind of conflict which saw its winners gain a lot of glory, but rather an early grave. The war faction, led by Prince Oberyn Martell, saw things differently. From the start of the conflict, Oberyn and his illegitimate girls (nicknamed the Sand Snakes) had tried to push Dorne to intervene in order for the men and women of Sunspear to have their revenge against the usurpers and the men who killed so many Dornish soldiers in the last war.

The arrival of Aegon Targaryen gave a huge boost to the pro-war faction, at a moment where said "vengeance" was impossible: Tywin Lannister, Gregor Clegane and Amory Lorch were already dead. So were Robert Baratheon, Eddard Stark, Hoster Tully and Jon Arryn. The only man left alive who was involved in the Sack of King's Landing somehow was Ser Jaime Lannister, prisoner at Riverrun. The Dornish didn't care, and Prince Doran Martell, widely acknowledged as a prudent and careful man, knew it was useless to stop the warmongers: he would only have signed his own death warrant, as a majority of the smallfolk population wanted blood. Furthermore, Oberyn's daughter Tyene Sand had managed to send a letter to King's Landing claiming Princess Myrcella Baratheon was dead: who knew what sort of repercussions it would have with King Stannis and King Robb. In reality, there had been a murder attempt (certainly ordered by the Sand Snakes), but the princess was unharmed. Her protector, through, the Kingsguard Ser Arys Oakheart, perished to protect her.

All these reasons united forced Prince Doran Martell to recognise Aegon Targaryen as his monarch, even if few in Dorne doubted the prince of Dorne would have enjoyed having a Targaryen with a less dubious claim like Daenerys Targaryen to support. Seeing the Golden Company supporting a Targaryen gave a bad feeling to those who knew their history. Prince Oberyn Martell was given command of the armies of Dorne, and the wheels of war began to turn for the Dornish population. Hundreds of men were sent to reinforce the two hosts mustered in the Boneway and the Prince's Pass. Aegon Targaryen was crowned in a great ceremony at Sunspear, and married shortly afterwards Arianne Martell. The last remnants of peace in Dorne were definitely broken.

The plan of Aegon Targaryen to conquer the south of Westeros has often been described as a modified version of the one used by Daeron I "the young Dragon". It is of course pure nonsense. One king tried to conquer Dorne, the other to conquer Westeros using Dorne as an initial base for his troops. The number of soldiers was approximately of 10 000 men of the Golden Company, 4500 Pentoshi and Volantene mercenaries, and 22 000 Dornish, pike men in majority with a few heavy cavalry, while Daeron I had had tens of thousands knights and infantry to invade Dorne. But the two kings shared a common point: they divided their forces for their offensives. King Aegon divided his forces in three from the start: he was going to command the Prince's Pass host (around 14 000 Dornish) while Oberyn Martell commanded the Boneway host (8 000 Dornish) and Ser Jon Connington the Golden Company and the mercenaries. The plan was for the Golden Company to strike first in the Southern Stormlands with an amphibious assault, attracting the Stormlords and King Stannis Baratheon's attention, while Oberyn would take them in the rear, coming with his army by the Boneway. The other army, under Aegon himself, would defeat the Marcher lords having survived from the recent battles and then invade the Reach, rallying the Targaryen loyalists to his banners. On the paper, it was a brilliant plan. It avoided a harassing travel for the siege engines and the war elephants of the Golden Company. It played on the Dornish strengths. It took advantage of the fact King Stannis hated the Tyrells and the concentration of the Reach armies on the western coast of Westeros.

But the plan was also full of dangerous flaws. Prince Oberyn Martell was an experienced commander; Aegon Targaryen had never commanded troops at all, while Jon Connington was the general who had gained his fame by losing the Battle of Bells when the Northern and Arryn troops slaughtered his force in the town of Stoney Sept. The distances between the three armies made impossible to coordinate with each other or react rapidly to enemy movements. Most of the troops were infantry, of an army of 36 500 men, less than 5 000 were cavalry. Aegon VI's commanders went to war blind concerning Stannis or for that matter any Westerosi strategist tactics, as Varys (who had taken again his role of spymaster ) was not a warrior, and so had never been educated enough to understand how the Baratheons and the Tyrells chose to fight. No preparation was made to engage a naval battle should one of Stannis captains intercept them at sea. The last point was quite vital, as an Estermont galley had noticed the Golden Company sailing for the Dornish coast, but the event had been forgotten between Aegon's arrival and the marriage with Princess Arianne.

It was often said strategies become useless in front of the enemy. But with King Stannis rushing south to defend his southern vassals and King Euron Greyjoy preparing to unleash his wrath on Westeros, the Targaryen-Dornish plan consisting in starting a war to restore the dragon dynasty was not going to start under the best of circumstances. For better or for worse, Aegon VI Targaryen led his troops in what was now going to be called officially the War of the Eight Kings. And the realm was going to shake...


	41. Live Free or Die

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Daenerys Targaryen else I wouldn't have sent her half a world away.

raw666: For now, Dorne casualties are going to be essentially military in nature. Keep in mind that Westeros is devastated, and no king, whoever he is, is going to order an invasion of Dorne in retaliation when the Seven Kingdoms couldn't bring the war to an end during the reign of Daeron I.

There will be extreme changes concerning the role of women on society after this war. As some men will have proved how low humanity can sink, the objections against women as rulers are going to be dismissed out of hand.

X59: Aegon will have definitely an easier beginning for his campaign than the forces he's sending the Stormlands, that's for sure. With the Tyrells and Hightowers forces concentrated against the Greyjoy threat, there's less soldiers to guard the Marshes.

Their ships were spotted, but they ignored the nation which owned the ship. And truth to be told, Lys, Tyrosh and Myr already knew they were coming... the news spreading was only a question of time.

Myrcella will have her own role to play, as the war of Aegon further north takes unexpected turns.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks!

Cancer-Chris: To be fair any invasion plan including Dorne is extremely complicated because they lack the manpower to sustain a heavy rate of casualties in a prolonged campaign. And no, while Oberyn is a decent commander, Jon Connington will not help things.

Guest(s): The Golden Company elephants are here, though there would be a burden in Westeros in the best of circumstances. In winter and on a terrain which is not flat, the elephants are often more a logistical problem than a tactical advantage. Not saying what will happen to them, of course.

TheAlagoano: Suspicions will always follow him, no matter victorious or defeated. The only persons vouching for him are Illyrio, Varys and Jon Connington. No proof, no reliable witness, no parchment sealed to reveal the truth. Even for a fantasy world, this is really flimsy evidence...

Paul: There will be in the next Vale chapter a more detailed description of who is following who. For the moment, Nestor Royce is firmly shocked by Lysa's insanity and the chaos spreading in the Vale of Arryn. Balon Swann was currently on his way to Dorne, but stopped at his home of Stonehelm when he learnt the capital was gone and war with Dorne was imminent.

The Sand Snakes were always a bit warmongering and willing to avenge Elia's death. In this story there is no hate like in canon, but there is no tender feeling towards the Lannisters. And with the armies of the Westerlands destroyed, a war between Sunspear and the Iron Throne was not that risky anymore.

It is too late to completely stop Euron. Warning Mace Tyrell would not be that productive an endeavour anyway.

As for the Lords Commanders of the Night's Watch, let's just say it will be very different from canon after Jeor. But no, no Bulwer as the lord of the black brothers, sorry.

M-Silver: That I'm afraid is a big spoiler, you will have to wait a bit for the answer...

And now we go to the Far East for a new chapter!

 **Live Free or Die**

 **The Essos Apocalypse Part I**

 _"Are you happy, Dragon Queen?"_ Last words of Khal Jhaqo, 300AC.

 _"Thousands of men and women are dying in Westeros. Was it necessary to begin an even bloodier war here?"_ Qarth emissary Xaro Xhoan Daxos, 300AC.

As far as everyone was aware, the Targaryen of Dragonstone were the only dragon lords from the Freehold of Valyria able to escape the Doom, a feat attributed to the seer abilities of Daenys "the Dreamer" Targaryen . Still, when Maelys "the Monstrous" Blackfyre was killed and Aerys II "the Mad King" began his reign, the prestige of said family had severely decreased. Not only the once mighty dragon lords had no more dragons, but too often the men and women carrying the name Targaryen name proved to suffer from insanity or other ailments in which their incest tendencies played certainly a role. In the end, the insanity in question proved their downfall, and the Targaryens lost Robert's Rebellion, evicted from the ugly Iron Throne they had created two hundred and eighty-three years ago. By 284AC, only two legitimate Targaryens survived, and if not for the courage and intrepidity of Ser Willam Darry who sailed away from Dragonstone with them, none would have lived to see another year. Whether it was a good ending depends on the historians answering the question. Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen, second and third child of Aerys II, found themselves exiled in Braavos, protected by one of the last loyal men to their House.

House Targaryen still existed in theory, but it had taken blows from which it would take decades to recover, if ever. Still, the delicate situation the last heirs of Valyria found themselves upon required a genius or at the very least a great man. They got Viserys Targaryen, a young man who had no skills or any political or military competences to speak of. In the son of Aerys, it was said, the madness which had driven the mad King to burn so many people with wildfire subsisted. As a result, it was unsurprising that no lord or knight went to defend and protect the Targaryen cause over the Narrow Sea. The last Targaryen claimant simply wasn't worth it. Year after year, Viserys and his sister travelled across the Free Cities, trying to plead their cause, only to dilapidate the remnants of the Targaryen fortune and for the doors of the powerful to close in front of them. Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh: all these cities founded by Valyria at the height of the dragon lords' power refused to support Viserys, giving him the insulting nickname "the Beggar King". By 297AC, the nickname had become the truth, and Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen were literally struggling to survive day after day. Until a magister named Illyrio Mopatis welcomed them in his home in Pentos. The motives of the man were extremely suspect to say the least: Viserys Targaryen had no more influence by that point, as the only thing the young man could do for a wealthy man was to attract the wrath of the Baratheons upon one head. What followed next didn't invalidate this position. In order to regain his father's throne, Viserys Targaryen wedded his sister to a Dothraki Khal named Drogo, a warlord commanding 40 000 warriors.

Apart from the fact the Valyrian dragons were surely rolling in their graves at the idea of one of their princesses being forced to marry such a barbarian, the plan was a truly hilarious joke from the start. Even if Viserys had had any kind of leverage upon Khal Drogo to force him to obey (which he didn't have), the Dothrakis were terrified of water. They would never have accepted to cross the Narrow Sea for the pitiful man who was Viserys. Even if by an incredible miracle of the Seven the contrary had happened, most strategists agree today it would have been a disaster. Transporting a vast khalasar would have a required a gigantic fleet, that Stannis Baratheon's Royal Fleet would have been ideally positioned to intercept. Thousands of Dothraki would have been massacred without setting foot on Westerosi soil. In a mythical scenario where the Dothraki managed to land safely, even victory would not have been likely. The Dothraki had no experience in besieging fortresses and castles. Not a problem in Essos where these constructions were rare. But in Westeros, there were dozens of keeps and forts for each kingdom. The Dothraki would have been slaughtered, and in the case of a partial survival, winter would have finished Khal Drogo and his half-naked warriors.

Letting all these speculations aside, the ridiculous plan of Viserys did not happen. Khal Drogo and his khalasar rode in the direction of Vaes Dothrak, the only city of the Dothraki (which just happened to be in the opposite direction of Westeros). Viserys Targaryen and an exiled Northern knight named Jorah Mormont accompanied them. And then came only little bits of news from slavers and merchants trading with the Dothrakis regularly. Then came news of the pregnancy of Daenerys Targaryen. On the other side of the Narrow Sea, Robert Baratheon roared in anger and ordered his council to send assassins to deal with the Targaryen problem once for all. Lord Eddard Stark almost resigned in protest, not that it mattered in the long term. This council was the last ever summoned by King Robert I, who then died in a suspicious hunting accident with a boar. In the aftermath, Lord Eddard Stark was executed for treason on the Great Sept of Baelor and the War of the Eight Kings began. With Lannisters and Stars busy fighting in the Riverlands, it was unsurprising that when the news of Viserys Targaryen death came from Essos, the information was seen as little importance. Apparently, Viserys had dared drawn a weapon in Vaes Dothrak against his own sister, and had been crowned with molten gold as punishment. The last son of Aerys II had met an end worthy of his insane father.

As the great motivation between the invasion of Westeros was dead and burnt, Khal Drogo lost understandably all his interest in invading Westeros, only to change brutally his mind when an assassin attempted to kill Daenerys. Targaryen supporters naturally displayed it as a loathsome act coming from Robert Baratheon and his council. Baratheons and Starks, maesters and historians have grown rather sceptical of these claims, however. First, there was the curious fact there was no second or third assassin after. Just one, like if certain people believed it might be enough to enrage a Khal of the Dothrakis. Secondly, the attempt was stopped in a curious manner by Jorah Mormont, a knight long since affiliated with Lord Varys, Master of Whisperers. From this fact, there was only a step away from declaring Lord Varys had engineered himself the assassination attempt in order for the Dothraki to invade Westeros, a step many lords and knights crossed with conviction.

But no one had expected the great Khal to fall in a skirmish against a Lhazareen town. Reports were extremely sketchy after this event, but the logical deduction was that Drogo died, and his khalasar dispersed all over the Dothraki Sea. Daenerys Targaryen disappeared in the Red Waste after the death of her husband, rumours affirming the son in her had died still-born, a monster which had nothing human in him. The last child of Aerys II disappeared in the Eastern desolation, and for a time most people thought the Targaryen line had finally gone extinct.

The people who had been enthusiastic about that news were massively disappointed when Daenerys emerged from the Red Waste near Qarth, well alive. The young woman had a hundred followers with her, mostly women, old men and children. Ser Jorah Mormont and a few Dothraki warriors were all she had as warriors. She had also three young dragons with her, named Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. Officially, the nobility of Qarth welcomed the young woman, calling her the Mother of Dragons. Behind the scenes, however, people began to conspire to take the fire-breathing lizards for their own gains. The young dragons were hardly a formidable force right now, but in a few years the beasts would be terrifying weapons of war. Anything that could put the dragons under a man's thumb was now required. Unfortunately for the ruling caste of Qarth, Daenerys Targaryen was not willing to let her dragons come in the ownership of another person. Her stay at Qarth was marked by several assassination attempts, the most spectacular happening in the House of the Undying, where the masters of the warlocks called the Undying Ones tried to eliminate the Mother of Dragons. It didn't work, and only Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons emerged alive from the inferno. The House of the Undying was reduced to a burnt ruin. After this, most of Qarth nobility was quite eager to see the last Targaryen alive far far away from their beautiful city. By a strange coincidence, three ships owned by the wealthy Illyrio Mopatis under the command of Strong Belwas and the former Kingsguard Ser Barristan Selmy arrived to escort Daenerys back to Pentos. With them, they brought news of the death of Robert Baratheon, the ongoing War of the Eight Kings.

If Daenerys had went back to Pentos straight away on these ships (renamed Vhagar, Meraxes and Balerion for the three dragons of Aegon the Conqueror), then the war of the Eight Kings could very well have taken a different turn. Lord Varys, Master of Whisperers and his co-conspirator Mopatis could very well have had the means to restore the Targaryen line on the Iron Throne before the Battle of the Four Armies annihilated everything. Instead, the self-proclaimed dragon queen chose to follow the advice of Ser Jorah Mormont and sailed to Astapor, in order to buy an army of Unsullied. The price was to be one of her three dragons. The Good Masters of Astapor believed for an instant they made the bargain of the millennium. Just before the dragon Drogon escaped their chains and burned them to death. The new Unsullied army under Targaryen command proceeded to sack Astapor and liberate the thousands of slaves. Daenerys Targaryen then freed all the slave population and her Unsullied, earning the infamous name of Breaker of Chains. Having now an army numbering thousands, Daenerys Targaryen proceeded to defeat Yunkai militarily and forced them to liberate their own slaves. Then it was the turn of Meereen, who was conquered in an underground offensive by the sewers of the city. In less than half a year, the Mother of Dragons had taken the three Great Cities of Slaver's Bay, destroyed the slave trade, formed an army now numbering tens of thousands and gained hundreds of followers ready to die for her. Feats that even in a family of dragon masters, few could equal.

But the time of easy triumphs was over for Daenerys Targaryen. Profiting from the fact the Mother of Dragons had not even bothered to verify if they complied with her terms, the masters of Yunkai denounced the treaty signed with her, hired new sellswords companies and the legions of New Ghis. This new army then marched on the new king of Astapor, Cleon the Butcher King and sacked the city a second time in a final manner. Astapor burnt, its remaining inhabitants were exterminated. Nothing remained living inside the ruined walls of the Red City. Inexplicably, Daenerys refused to intervene. Astapor gone, Yunkai having declared war, only Meereen was left. With forces from Qarth and the rest of Essos establishing a naval blockade, Meereen started to see internal agitation, under the form of the Sons of the Harpy, men wishing to kill Daenerys and the soldiers loyal to her. Soon, Meereen was encircled by an enemy army as the insurgents inside the walls grew even more bold and fanatic.

With the open support of Volantis, New Ghis, Mantarys, Tolos, Elyria and Qarth, the generals of Yunkai believed their victory was all but assured. Even the spreading of the disease known as the bloody flux didn't hinder this certainty, some officers sending diseased animals or corpses into Meereen by the way of trebuchets to contaminate the Unsullied guarding the city and the water supplies. The Mother of Dragons was trapped into the last free City of Slaver's Bay. Soon, the army sworn to the cause of slavery was convinced, the attack would start and the massacre begins. Unknown to them, they had just doomed all their cities and nations. The Essos Apocalypse had begun.


	42. The Night's Watch Dies

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Night Watch, Jon Snow or the Others.

raw666: The problem is that while the death of Walder Frey doesn't appear that good a change now, don't forget that at that very moment the Riverlands have been restored to some measure of stability and the carnage which happens in the last chapters has a good chance of happening in the _Winds of Winter_. It's just we have not read where the books will be to that point.

X59: For the moment, not a lot has changed, only the fact Tyrion has not gone eastwards but northwards. The changes are going to be massive once we reach the battle of Meereen, however (well that and the canon book is not published so it's my imagination which works).

Next chapter involving the Ironborn will be chapter 45. It will not feature what Euron is doing, though.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for enjoying the story.

Guest(s): Very good points on your (long) review. And notice that by writing this story like I do, a lot of bias has been added. The historian writing this is hardly an impartial party and some actions which are done will present the losers as idiots or incompetents. The winners write history, unless they're illiterate of course...

Darthas: You forgot the Unsullied, the freed population of Meereen and Victarion Greyjoy who is on his way with the Iron Fleet. Enough sides to provoke a titanic conflict which wills enflame an entire continent...

Paul: The Wall arrives in this chapter. So definitely before chapter 47, no? (Grin.)

As for the additional factions, some are present in canon but their participation is not really understated apart from an odd comment or two. Others armies are not here in the books, but I included them because everyone practises slavery in this area and they are certainly not going to await doing nothing while Daenerys threatens their way of life.

Matt Quinn: Some unknown distant Arryn cousin no one has ever heard about or the Arryns of Gulltown. As far as dynasty claims goes, these are rather weak and they have not a lot of chance to ever rule on the throne of the Eyrie.

Aegon will have his moment of glory... but it will definitely not last.

As for the Essos Apocalypse, wait and see...

Revan3363: Thanks! Let's just say there are very good reasons why it will be called an apocalypse...

And now we go to the cold and far North!

 **The Night's Watch dies**

 **The Wall Stands Part I**

" _The Night's Watch is a shadow of what it once was."_ Lord Eddard Stark, 298AC.

" _Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honour to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come._ " Oath of the Night's Watch.

" _Sound once the horn if the rangers are back. Twice if the wildlings come. Three times means the Others. Pray all the Gods you'll never have to sound it in your service_." Qhorin Halfhand, 298AC.

" _This is a nightmare. What have we done to deserve this_?" Eddison "Dolorous Edd" Tollett, 299AC.

" _Form ranks! Rally to me!"_ Last word of Thoren Smallwood, 299AC.

The Night's Watch. The oldest military order of Westeros, by a very large margin. The Watch survived the fall of the First Men, the Andals Invasions and the conquest of the Targaryens and their dragons. Founded over eight thousand and five hundred years ago, at the end of the First Long Night, when the First Men, the Children of the Forest and the Giants united to defeat the terrifying species known as the Others in the Battle for the Dawn. Laying waste upon the realms of the living, the Others appeared unstoppable before a mighty coalition of every intelligent living being pushed them back to the Lands of Always Winter where they had come from. The legendary architect Brandon Stark built the Wall, a massive fortification seven hundred feet tall and 300 miles long, separating the Seven Kingdoms from the wild lands beyond north.

The order of the Night's Watch was created, with a simple order: defend the realms of men against the White Walkers and their dead servants. A task the new black brothers did well, under the 13th Lord Commander of the Night Watch forsook his vows and took an Other as a wife. It took the combined intervention of Brandon the Breaker, King of Winter and Joramun, King-Beyond-the Wall, to eliminate the threat and repulse the Others in their frozen lands. Year after year, the black brothers and the wildlings eager of revenge repulsed a bit further the cold beings, and the Other sightings grew scarcer and scarcer. Until an era came where the masters of death and ice were simply not seen anymore. The betrayal left a deep mark in the North, where the Starks defended the black brothers to erect walls facing the south: as such the guards would be useless in trying to participate in the affairs of the realms south of their massive fortification.

With the White Walkers no longer a threat to the security of the human realms, the Night's Watch was still not free to disband. Wildlings raids soon grew to be the source of serious fighting. The Night's Watch had the forces to defend the Wall against their former human allies. Westeros was a land where conflicts were the norm, and the vanquished knights and men-at-arms of these wars were constant reinforcements for the black brothers. More than ten thousand men-at-arms strong with seventeen castles fully manned, the Night's Watch was a formidable force guarding the kingdoms south of it from any threat coming from the Haunted forest or beyond it. The only issue was the men in command began to believe the wildlings were the enemy to beat, not the Others, who had not seen by a man of the Watch in centuries by that point.

More centuries passed, and the Night's Watch continued its role to safeguard and protect humanity, the implacable shield of steel of the extreme North. Hate was now the new common feeling between the black brothers and the wildlings, who were now nicknamed 'crows' in every language known. Until Aegon the Conqueror arrived and conquered Westeros with three dragons. The Targaryen ascension and creation of the Iron Throne was a catastrophic event for the Night's Watch. Suddenly, there was no conflict anymore in the Seven Kingdoms (except some small-scaled raids between Dorne and the Marcher lords) and when war happened, the presence of dragons on the battlefield ensured the soldiers would not join the Night's Watch when they were defeated. Smoking corpses were definitely not of any utility anywhere. By the time Maegor I's reign ended in rebellion and religious uprisings, the Night's Watch had already lost important bases of supply and precious reinforcements which never returned. The castles of Long Barrow and Stonewall were already abandoned, with preparations to close the Nightfort, the greatest and most powerful of the castles, being made. The number of men-at-arms and warriors of all cultures dropped to seven thousand for the first time in two millennium. Now the senior officers hoped and prayed for a king to finally send help.

Instead they got Jaehaerys "the Conciliator", a man who was so good a diplomat he was able to make a peace which lasted fifty years. The Night Watch didn't survive this long era of prosperity without any kind of conflict. Hoarfrost Hill, Greyguard, Oakenshield, Sable Hall and the Nightfort were abandoned. The manpower available to the Night's Watch decreased under the ten thousand mark, with less than four thousand warriors. To add insult to the injury, Jaehaerys decided to grant new lands to the Night's Watch which would form the New Gift, while his wife "Good Queen" Alysanne gave jewels to the black brothers to build a new command castle, the Deep Lake keep. For all his brilliance in politic matters, this time Jaehaerys made a terrible mistake. There was no military reason to grant the New Gift to the Night's Watch: the unofficial reason was to weaken House Umber and their vassals at a moment where the Northern loyalties to the Iron Throne were less than enthusiastic. Alas, Jaehaerys had badly miscalculated. The black brothers were in complete decline, and this "gift" weakened Northern help to the Watch at a moment the men in charge on the Wall needed men and supplies without delay. Without warriors and smallfolk to help, Deep Lake was abandoned five years after the death of King Jaehaerys. As the wildlings raids increased, the Old Gift and the New Gift were progressively abandoned.

Some devastating wars in the South like the Dance with the Dragons and the First Blackfyre Rebellion helped the Night's Watch compensate its losses, but these were only drops of water in an empty sea. Sentinel Stand, Deep Lake, Icemark, Queensgate, Woodswatch-by-the-Pool, Torches, Rimegate, Greenguard and Westwatch-by-the-Bridge were abandoned one by one to the fury of the elements. By 298AC, the state of the defences of the Wall was a picture of desolation and ruins. There were approximately 1500 men left in the vicinity of the Wall, with around one thousand black brothers keeping their vows. The Night Watch was dying, a long agony made sure by the Long Summer of peace which had lasted all the end of Robert I Baratheon's reign. The recruits were literally the worst the Seven Kingdoms could offer: Aerys supporters who had been forced to take the Black by Tywin Lannister, Ironborn captured during the First Greyjoy Rebellion, rapists, murderers and some Southern smallfolk who had for one reason or another being forced to go North or face a death sentence. The few Northmen still considering the duty of the Watch to be an honour were largely outnumbered, but it was all there was to maintain an illusion of cohesion on the Wall. Only three castles were still functional, Castle Black, Eastwatch-By-the -Sea and the Shadow Tower. And the wildlings raids grew even more audacious and violent as winter approached.

Experienced rangers began to disappear in the wilderness, and the rare prisoners made in skirmishes against the wildlings gave warning of a new threat: Mance Rayder, a deserter of the Night's Watch, had managed to unite dozens of clans under him to become the first King-Beyond-The Wall in generations. After the disappearance of First Ranger Benjen Stark in a patrol, Lord Commander Jeor Mormont decided the time to wait was over. A Great ranging beyond the Wall was planned, with the "elite" of the Night's Watch, three hundred men total, to discover the fate of the missing rangers.

If there is one thing historians agree today, it was the fact the 997th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch orders were completely out of touch with reality. Barring the minor fact two former black brothers rose again as wights to kill their Lord Commander (who was only saved by the intervention of his aide Jon Snow, Lord Eddard Stark bastard's son, and his direwolf Ghost), it was roughly a third of the Night's Watch sent away from the Wall, leaving Castle Black and the Shadow Tower badly undermanned. It also showed a massive disregard for the situation in the South: with the best part of the Stark forces fighting against the Ironborn on the Western coast or in the Riverlands, the Wall could not be reinforced quickly or easily. The Last Great Ranging in history began with worrying news: all the wildlings villages between the Wall and Craster's Keep were empty, as Mance Rayder gathered a massive army in the Frostfangs to strike at the Wall. Jeor Mormont decided to use the Fist of the First Men, a hill on the western side of the Haunted forest, to establish his base and launch several smaller parties in the search of the wildling enemy. Needless to say, it was a stupid plan. While the Fist was fortified by a ringwall, the fortification was in dire need for repairs and rebuilding, and the Night's Watch had not the materials to repair it to their previous strength. There was also no food or water available in this place, meaning the rangers would need other detachments to go and search for supplies if they didn't want to starve. But above all reasons, it was an idiocy because it placed the Night's Watch force in a difficult position should they need to withdraw. With less than three hundred men, the army under Jeor Mormont would be overwhelmed by the numbers should the wildlings army come. Yes, the warriors of Mance Rayder would pay two or three of their men to kill one black brother, but killing the crows here and there would be easy compared to a conventional assault of the Wall. With no warning and the elite of the Night's Watch (and its best commanders) gone, the oncoming Battle of the Wall could only have had one conclusion. Westerosi strategists have wondered on this mystery in endless debates: Senility of the Lord Commander? Pride of an old man wanting to go into a blaze of glory? Underestimation of the hated wildling enemy?

In the end it didn't matter. The Great Ranging had come even later in the Haunted forest than when it had been expected, having expected a muster from the North to help them that never came due to the War of the Eight Kings. Large snowy storms began to fall, slowing the ranging parties and making sure the wildling army was not found. The three hundred men were once more gathered at the Fist, waiting for the enemy to come to them. But when the hammer came, it was not from Mance Rayder, but from an old enemy which had been largely forgotten in memory. The Others. The attack came without warning in the middle of the night. If not for Ghost, Jon Snow's direwolf, the Night's Watch would have been killed without having the time to raise a sword in self-defence. I didn't mean the humans had a chance of victory. Coming out of the night at the light of the torches, thousands of undead controlled by the White Walkers swarmed the humans' positions. The obstacles, too light for a determined wildling army, were literally nothing for a force consisting of dead corpses animated by the Others magic. Thoren Smallwood, commander of the rangers, and twenty-nine rangers had only the time to form their line that a wave of wights shattered them. Smallwood and all his men died in less than five minutes. The sacrifice of the first line was not enough. Never the current Night Watch members had imagined facing such threats. Dead men, dead animals, dead giants entered the melee. The Night Watch fought in one of the bravest fights in their long history, but the resistance was futile. For every wight which fell, twenty came to replace the loss. At the beginning of the attack, the black brothers had been outnumbered ten to one. Their situation after a quarter of an hour was getting worse: they were now thirty wights for every man still breathing. Jarmen Buckwell, commander of the scouts, Mallador Locke, commander of the baggage and Ser Ottyn Wythers, commander of the rearguard, died in that furious night orgy of violence. For the first time in thousands of years, the Night's Watch died defending the human realms against the real enemy, sounding repeated three calls of their war horns in the frozen wastes. Their efforts were not enough. The Others, invisible in the darkness, launched thousands of wights to erase all resistance. Jeor Mormont was forced to order the retreat, which turned rapidly into a rout.

The Battle of the Fist of the First Men was over. The Night's Watch was soundly defeated. Of its three hundred men force, only eighty-two men managed to escape the massacre, including the Lord Commander himself and Qhorin Halfhand commanding the troops of the Shadow Tower. Two hundred and eighteen men remained behind in the fallen Fist forever (or as long as the Others didn't raise them again). The survivors of this nightmarish battle were dispersed in the rout. Fifty men managed to reform with Jeor Mormont and withdrew to Craster's Keep , while the rest of the men led by Qhorin Halfhand and Jon Snow covered their retreat and tried to assert the Others and wildlings positions in these frozen lands. The disaster, one of the worst the Wall guardians had ever suffered in their long history, was not over. Of Jeor Mormont's group managing to reach the home of the wildling named Craster, forty-six were still alive, with fourteen severely injured. Food reserves were gone and the morale was inexistent. Lord Commander Mormont should have bypassed the keep entirely, knowing very well the wildling habitation had neither the will nor the capacity to feed the defeated men. He didn't. Mutiny was unavoidable. With so many of the best fighters and officers lost at the Fist, the rapists and murderers were suddenly in position of strength, and they didn't wait to act. Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, the Old Bear, was killed by his own men, who tore each other apart for food and the women of Craster. The mutineers won, being far numerous and bloodthirsty than the loyalists, leaving only a dozen men to retreat towards the Wall.

It was the darkest moment of the Night's Watch in history, but even in the night there was a moment of hope. As live fled the body of the dying Lord Commander Mormont, one single loyalist brother had remained, hearing the last words of his superior. Samwell Tarly, apprentice to Maester Aemon, was the only man left to her the last wishes of his agonising superior. Lord Mormont was not dead for a minute that a pale being emerged from the trees, holding an ice sword. A White Walker. An Other. The sworn enemy of humanity. Samwell Tarly was alone, tired, and with only a dagger of dragonglass gifted to him by Jon Snow. The Other had all the advantages but was too overconfident. Certain of his victory, the other did not expect Samwell Tarly to charge him straight on and ram him. The Other warrior stood again, only to be stabbed in the leg by the dagger of Tarly. And humanity re-discovered how dragonglass was the weakness to the Others. The White Walker shrieked inhumanly before collapsing and disintegrating in ice shards. Samwell Tarly had just earned himself the name "the Slayer", a name which would follow him for the rest of his life and in the Westerosi legends. Alongside one of Craster's wives Gilly and her young son, the last member of the Night Watch present took his commander sword and cloak and marched southwards.

Ignoring the mutiny which had just happened, Qhorin Halfhand and his group were forced to retreat southwards. While the Others had again disappeared with their army of dead, the wildlings were finally on the march. The Night's Watch were not in any way able to fight them, and were forced to rush back to the Wall. The Last Great Ranging was over. The last man to reach Castle Black was Samwell Tarly with the wildling woman Gilly, bringing the number of survivors from the disastrous expedition to forty men, one wildling woman and one child. A dozen mutineers were still alive at Craster's Keep, but no one was going to wait for these men to come back to reason (unless these deserters marched freely to their place of execution). Forty men of three hundred, and except Qhorin Halfhand, all the officers and rangers of great renown had perished. With tens of thousands wildlings marching south to attack the Wall, the men in black prepared for great battles they had never in their worst nightmares believed possible to happen. But before the arrival of Mance Rayder and his army, they would have to choose a new Lord Commander...


	43. The Watch never surrenders

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Mance Rayder, the giants and their mammoths.

raw666: Daenerys will play her part in the destruction of many things in Essos, but she won't be the only one responsible. The Red Priests have their own plans concerning the slaves of Volantis, there's Victarion Greyjoy and a lot of forces involved.

As for changes, well, obviously Stannis isn't going to make a miraculous arrival on the field this time.

X59: There will be a new Commander before Robb arrives. The Night's Watch brothers reinforced are intelligent enough they need a figure of authority or the wildlings will slaughter them. Never mind the Others. Only total confusion and a huge lack of preparations prevented this in canon.

Well in this story, Jojen will still be as insistent Bran has to go, but he has to be careful as Catelyn is at Winterfell and I really doubt Lady Stark has much use for visions, prophecies and the topic of divination. The Bran arc will be completely different, as Winterfell wasn't taken and burnt and so Bran can't disappear in the chaos of the battle just like that.

As for a greenseer vanquishing the Others, I don't know how it can be done. So far, Bloodraven had killed zero White Walkers and done exactly nothing to help humanity to prepare to the Long Night. I'm not fond of Brynden Rivers, obviously.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks!

Guest(s): New chapter coming!

Paul: The Wall chapter comes immediately. After that it will be the Dornish invasion of the Stormlands, then the Vale and Meereen. The Westerlands and Theon are chapters which will come much later as the heart of the action isn't really there for the moment.

Matt Quinn: The ravens were sent, but apart from the Northern lords, not many will march. They have more important things to deal with (or at least they think so).

 **The Watch never surrenders**

 **The Wall stands Part II**

 _"Fear not the Others, fear me!"_ Ramsay Snow, 299AC.

 _"We can only die. Why else do we don these black cloaks, but to die in defence of the realm?"_ Lord Qhorin Halfhand, 299AC.

 _"Some men want whores on the eve of battle, and some want gods."_ Jon Snow, 299AC.

 _"We bled. We fought. We died. But the Wall stands."_ Samwell 'the Slayer' Tarly, 300AC.

With the disaster in terms of lost manpower provoked by the Last Great Ranging, the Night's Watch was forced to face one of the ugliest truths since its creation in 299AC: they were too weak to defend efficiently the human realms. At the Fist of the First Men, the elite of the black brothers had fought against the ancient enemy, and had been massacred without any great difficulty. The fact the wildlings would come first to assault the Wall was not a thing to cheer: both the Others and the Free Folk living Beyond-the-Wall had the numbers to overwhelm the weakened Night's Watch.

The Wall had received reinforcements of course, but in far too little quantity to do any good. Except the North, no one had send contingents of men to defend the Wall. And the Northern reinforcements were late due to a combination of the hostilities and bad weather: 120 men from the Northern mountain clans had arrived at the Shadow Tower, a 80 strong force of Karstark and Umber men commanded by Mors Umber and 100 men from House Manderly reinforcing the docks capacity at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. Roughly three hundred men, barely enough to compensate the losses taken in the Far North. There were also new black brothers, but the quality of these newly recruits was non-existent. There were 40 former Goldcloaks and Lord Janos Slynt (their former commander) sent by Tyrion Lannister for corruption, bribery and incompetence, 30 Ironborn having been captured in the battle of Moat Cailin and Deepwood Motte, 50 men-at-arms of the Stormlands and the Reach having refused to serve Stannis Baratheon after the battle of Storm's End and 80 former Westerners having been captured in the first battles of the Riverlands campaign that no one was interested to ransom. There were also 150 men of the Dreadfort, led by Ramsay Snow.

The presence of the illegitimate son of Lord Roose Bolton was easy to explain. The bastard of the Dreadfort, as he was nicknamed, had had the stupidity to make small raids on the Hornwood lands, right at the moment the Ironborn attack on the North was over. Neither the Manderly nor the available Stark forces liked being distracted from the current war in such a manner, and 2000 men had promptly marched on the Dreadfort led by Rodrik Cassel. Lord Roose Bolton quickly abandoned his son to the fate he justly deserved, ordering his guards to stand down and marrying Marianne Frey after the Battle of the Four Armies. When Ramsay Snow arrived to the castle of his father, it was only to find the gates closed, archers ready to shoot, and 3 000 men on his heels (the various raids had infuriated even Bolton bannersmen in the extreme). Ramsay Snow and his accomplices surrendered immediately and chose to take the black, although Ramsay's advisor, a disgusting man named Reek, was killed with five arrows trying to escape in the dark.

All in all, there were 300 soldiers from the North there helping to fend off the wildling attack and 350 new Night's Watchers. If there had been no Great Ranging, there would have been 1250 black brothers and 300 Northmen to repulse Mance Rayder. Instead, there would be only the 300 Northmen and 990 men sworn to the Wall. The main problem, aside from the 100 000 wildlings on their way to attack, was the poor quality of the surviving garrison. There were few knights or warriors of great renown. A lot of recruits were murderers and rapists, having profited from the anarchy of the Eight King's War before being forced to take the black. The Stewards left in the three fortresses were old and cowardly, denying the return of the Others and having no skill in strategy or in war tactics.

Despite this, Qhorin Halfhand was elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch in the first round of elections. The senior officer having survived the Great Ranging was popular with the men and very good with the sword. The senior ranger had obeyed Jeor Mormont's orders to the best of his ability and had fought bravely at the Fist. Qhorin was also a ranger for more than twenty-five years, and every old member of the Watch knew his name. The 182 men of Denys Mallister at Shadow Tower voted for Qhorin, as did the 242 men of Cotter Pyke at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. But the 566 black brothers at Castle Black were split between Qhorin himself, Janos Slynt, Ramsay Snow, Bowen Marsh, Ser Endrew Tarth and Donal Noye. As 233 men of Castle Black voted for Qhorin, it proved be enough to have a two-thirds majority and becoming Lord Commander. Ramsay Snow came second with 155 votes, Janos Slynt came third with 84 votes, Bowen Marsh fourth with 62 votes, Endrew Tarth took 18 votes and Donal Noye 14. Lord Qhorin Halfhand became the 998th Commander of the Night's Watch and hurried the preparations for the upcoming battle against the massive army of Mance Rayder. Trees on the northern side of the wall were cut, the defences of the Wall were refurbished after decades of neglect, builders and carpenters prepared ballista, scorpions and other siege engines to hold the top of the Wall.

Alas, the time allowed to make the Wall an invincible rampart grew shorter and shorter, with the preparations being far from completion when the vanguard of the wildling army was sighted for the first time. For the first time, the Night Watch could see their enemy in all its glory and it was not an endearing spectacle. The black brothers were under 2000 in numbers, even with all the population of the Gift under arms. The wildlings were more than 100 000 strong. Not everyone in this mass of men, wargs, mammoths, giants and animals was a fighter, but not everyone in the Night Watch knew how to wield a sword too. The gates under the wall were closed. Lord Qhorin ordered his men to expedite the almost finished preparations and to stop the rest of the activities near and upon the Wall. The battle was about to begin.

But the King-Beyond-The-Wall had no intention to waste his best warriors in a suicidal charge against the most defended portion of the Wall at Castle Black. As a former member of the Night's Watch, Mance Rayder had a more cunning plan in mind. The wildling leader knew very well the manpower issues the Watch faced, and though he ignored Northern reinforcements had arrived (and that more were on their way ) he correctly assumed the Watch could not adequately defend everywhere the Wall. Therefore an assault on five movements was put in action. First, a wildling chief named the Weeper (a very dangerous murderer and rapist) and 300 wildlings would launch an attack by the Gorge, threatening Shadow Tower by the abandoned castle of Westwatch-By-The-Bridge. Secondly, another minor clan leader named Tormund Giantsbane would begin construction of large rafts and barges to go around the Wall and attack Eastwatch. These two operations were diversions, intended to deprive Castle Black of all its valid men before the decisive battle. While the black brothers would try to repulse this combined assault, two groups of 200 wildlings each commanded by Styr, Magnar of the Thenns and his second Jarl would climb the wall at Hoarfrost Hill and Long Barrow. The two groups would unite to strike at Mole's Town before attacking Castle Black from behind. While Mance Rayder would launch a general assault to take the gate and the tunnel, the Thenns would assault the headquarters of the Night's Watch from behind.

In terms of strategy, it was a pretty intelligent plan made by a man who understood very well problems of communication and time. The wargs and their animals in the wildling army were going to ensure the coordination of the wildlings forces as a whole. Alas for Mance Rayder, not one of his subordinate leaders understood anything to strategy or tactics. The Lord Commander Qhorin Halfhand did not reinforce Shadow Tower or Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, because there was no need to. The assault of the Weeper in the Gorge was a massacre in all but name, the 120 Northern Mountain clans' men and the 182 black brothers under Ser Denys Mallister slaughtering them. The wildlings lost 220 men (for 65 Northern and Night Watch's soldiers killed) and the Weeper fled north in the direction of the Fist of the First Men. At Eastwatch, the attempt of Tormund to use rafts and barges were doomed from the start as three galleys of House Manderly and Locke were positioned there. Trying a naval assault against the scorpions of a warship would be the height of insanity, and Tormund Giantsbane didn't insist.

The Thenn assault was more successful at the beginning. Concentrated in its three remaining fortresses, the Night's Watch never saw the 400 wildlings pass the wall. However, attacking Mole's Town was a big mistake. While it certainly deprived the Wall from important defenders and disrupted the supply lines of Castle Black, it also warned the Night's Watch of the imminent assault on their rear. Lord Qhorin thus didn't order all his men to go at the top of the Wall, leaving a powerful reserve of 200 men led by Mors Umber and Ramsay Snow. Unconscious of the trap they were about to walk in, the wildlings launched their final assault on the Wall. The Thenns had no chance of victory. They were fighting an enemy at two against one, but the enemy had bows and a good defensive position. The Thenns had also not the effect of surprise. One third of their men fell before reaching the gates of Castle Black. Those who did make it faced a cavalry charge of Ramsay Snow. The Bastard of the Dreadfort, according to all accounts, took pleasure to torture and mutilate all his wildling enemies. Screams sounded in the cold air. The attack in the rear had failed, though. Magnar Styr, Jarl and all the Thenns leaders were dead. Losses in the Northern and Night's Watch ranks were roughly 50 men.

On the other side of the Wall, the battle continued. The wildlings were now sending their mammoths to breach the door guarding the entrance of the tunnel, using the giants to retaliate with their large bows to the archers shooting at them from the top of the Wall. Wildling climbers also tried to use ropes, boots and ice axes to climb the wall and reach the position of the black brothers directly. Each new tactic left ten wildling dead for each defender. But the warriors of Mance Rayder pressed on. They were one hundred for every northerner and man of the Night's Watch. The assault lasted hours, until dawn arrived. The critical moment came when a giant later identified as their king, Mag the Mighty, managed to breach the doors and penetrate into the tunnel. Twenty men of the Night's Watch, including Donal Noye, died defending the portcullis and the inner gates, but the Night's Watch emerged victorious from this battle, and during all these hours the archers on top of the Wall rained arrows on the wildlings under them. Five giants, half a dozen mammoths and more than four hundred wildlings died there, in this killing ground between the Haunted Forest and the Wall.

Panic began to reign in the wildlings ranks, as losses began to mount. Mance Rayder, feeling his forces were at the edge of routing, began to pull back his core forces. But it was too late. Lord Qhorin knew he and the men under his command couldn't kill the enemy army. It was impossible, the Night Watch had thrown on this night three quarter of their oil and arrow reserves and there weren't enough men alive to do the deed in any case. They had to break the cohesion of the enemy. As dawn arrived and the sun began to lighten the battlefield, 300 men of the Night's Watch counterattacked. On the paper, it was absurd. The wildling army still outnumbered them more than ten to one. If the men under Mance Rayder had held their positions, the Watch would have been irremediably broken. But the wildlings didn't know it. Facing an apparently fearless and vengeful enemy after a night of defeat, thousands of wildlings broke. Some renowned wildling leaders like Harma or Rattleshirt tried to stand, but black archers took them out, provoking even more panic. Mance Rayder, King-Beyond-the Wall tried to stop the rout, rallying his men everywhere, at the centre of the action and at the core of the melee. It was there he and Lord Qhorin Halfhand met. The two men, who had been once friends during their service in the Watch, fought a lethal duel where their proficiency with the sword was such that many stopped fighting to see this epic fight. Qhorin Halfhand emerged as winner, decapitating his opponent, but not before Mance Rayder buried his sword in his chest. Lord Qhorin would not survive the next hour.

The death of Mance Rayder was the end for the wildlings, who despite having plenty of reserves, fled and escaped in the Haunted Forest, leaving five hundred more warriors dead on the snow. Mors Umber and the Watch took 800 prisoners. The victory had not been priceless, on the other hand. Sixty-two black brothers died in that last charge, among them the Lord Commander himself, Ser Endrew Tarth, and Ramsay Snow who had been pulled from his horse when fighting with only 20 men of the Dreadfort a group of cannibals. None of the men accompanying the bastard of Bolton survived, but judging by the massacre of the Thenns (some of them having been tortured in gruesome fashions) none cried his death. There was not enough of a body to recover anyway.

The Night's Watch emerged victorious from the battle of the Castle Black, but the price in terms of men was horrendous. Even the arrival of Robett Glover with 1000 men the next week didn't raise the spirits considerably: these reinforcements were Northmen, not black brothers and the battle had left huge holes in the ranks of the rangers, builders and stewards which would be hard to replace. From the 990 men before the battle, 238 had died defending the Wall (along with 186 Northmen). One black brother in five were not losses the Wall could afford, not when blue lights appeared far away and the weather grew even colder, with storms of snow burying everything unfortunate enough to walk outside. Waiting for winter, the Night's Watch prepared again to elect a new Lord Commander...


	44. Dragons are not aquatic animals

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Golden Company, Bittersteel and their glorious history of defeats.

raw666: If this had been a Westerosi army with the discipline and the adequate training besieging the Wall, casualties for Mance Rayder and his troops would have been much worse. Ironically, their lack of cohesion and their tendency to break completely when facing a tough opponent was an advantage here. Not that it's entirely a good thing, as the Haunted Forest is far from a good place to live at the moment.

Jon right now respects the wildlings as fighters, but despises (like most of the Night's Watch) their customs and it's hard to blame him. The black brothers have seen cannibals and quite nasty examples of how far humanity can sink with the wildlings. Still, they are rather likeable compared to what comes behind them...

X59: Yep, the battle was different from the books, wasn't it? Jon Snow was serving as Qhorin's second for the battle, and will be an important character in the next Wall chapter. Given the fact there were enough men to defend against the wildlings, Sam didn't fight and stayed to protect Maester Aemon at Castle Black. He shot one or two arrows in the dark but that's it.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for the review.

Guest(s): Here we go again...

Paul: With Lord Walder dead, Stevron Frey was eager to marry the women of his family, but he was not desperate to conclude an alliance with Roose Bolton and didn't offer the weight of the bride in silver. This monetary bonus disappearing, Roose chose a Frey girl who was not looking like an elephant.

Ramsay was entertaining, but he would have been killed sooner or later, as he has a tendency to irritate, well, everyone. He got so many votes at the election because plenty of the Dreadfort men were sent with him to the Wall and they were too terrified of him to vote for anyone else. As for other characters, many of them will have their fate detailed in the next chapter. The next election will be held before the arrival of the Black Lions, as for the wildlings you will have to wait and see.

Ygritte was with Tormund's group, and so is still alive, as she saw no reason unlike in canon to climb the Wall or assault Castle Black. She is not searching revenge like in the books, but she's not the greatest admirer of the Night's Watch either...

 **Dragons are not aquatic animals**

 **The Stag and the Dragon Part II**

" _King Stannis expects every man to do his duty."_ Lord Davos Seaworth, Battle of the Dornish Sea, 300AC.

 _"If leaving four of your men dead on the field for every defender is a victory, then yes I suppose the Battle of Blackhaven was a victory._ " Lord Jon Connington to Prince Oberyn Martell, 300AC.

 _"Bittersteel failed at each of his attempts to conquer the Iron Throne. His descendants do not seem to be more competent._ " king Stannis Baratheon, 300AC.

Westerosi history in naval battles is often complex and dangerously difficult to guess the truth from the official propaganda of the side who won at the time. If Visenya Targaryen and her dragons had not been unleashed on the Arryn fleet during Aegon's conquest, no doubt the Velaryon fleet would have suffered an ignominious defeat. By comparison, the battles fought at sea during the War of the Eight Kings were in general total in their engagement and the destruction they brought. Like the Battle of the Dornish Sea.

To better understand the implications of the battle, we have first to remember the belligerents. On one side was the fleet of Aegon Targaryen under Jon Connington's command. Transporting the 10 000 men of the Golden Company and between 4 000 and 5 000 sellswords and mercenaries, this fleet's goal was to invade the Stormlands by the south. It was not a battle fleet: only five galleys were regular warships built to hunt pirates. The rest, around fifty ships, were large transports, carrying the soldiers or the supplies needed for a long campaign. On the other side, the Royal fleet of King Stannis I Baratheon, under the command of Lord Davos Seaworth. Contrary to Connington's naval force, these warships had all been built for war and nothing else. Twenty-five war galleys, twenty-three Westerosi and two Lysene, with five major capital galleys (including Seaworth brand new flagship the _Fury Reborn_ ) and twenty smaller ones (most of them built on the models of super-longships). Already, the captains of Stannis Baratheon had an unfair advantage: they knew the approximate strength of their enemies, courtesy of the Estermont galley which had seen them crossing from Essos. If that wasn't enough, the command of the Dragon fleet was divided between Jon Connington and Harry Strickland, the commander of the Golden Company. The latter, considered so prudent it was a step away from the accusations of cowardice, had voiced huge concerns about the whole plan. The men of the Golden Company were already divided, and the battle had not started yet.

What proved the broken point was surprisingly not the sight of enemy sails, but a gigantic storm as the Targaryen naval forces were contouring the Broken Arm. Judging he had a good chance to evade the fury of the elements, Connington ordered his ships to continue to Stonehelm at their best speed. Harry Strickland disagreed and ordered all the warships under his command to find refuge in one of the Dornish bays near the Broken Arm. Unsurprisingly, Davos Seaworth and his men were still at anchor at Estermont, having anticipated the bad weather and chosen to let it pass before dealing with their enemies. As it happened, it was the correct decision. Contrary to what Strickland had hoped, none of the Dornish bays had proven adequate in fending the anger of the elements. None of his heavy transports had sunk, true, but three of them were so badly damaged their crew nicknamed them the "slugs of the sea". It took the exhortations of most of the other senior commanders to force Strickland to sail in the direction of the Stormlands, as the commander of the Golden Company was now convinced the storm was a bad omen. For once, he was right. Nearly ten days away from Stonehelm, Strickland's fleet was able to see sails on the horizon. Panic spread in the fleet, the Golden officers having enormous difficulties to re-establish discipline. In the minds of the common soldier, there was little doubt these sails were enemies. The words of the doomsayers were proven true. Harry Strickland chose this moment to grow a spine and ordered the units under his command to gather and prepare at daw to form the line of battle. This was a bad moment for showing courage. The entire Targaryen fleet was slow and cumbersome, the transports and the three war galleys were slowed down by the storm damages. Most of the night was spent by the crews of the Golden Company trying to put some order in the formation. By dawn, everyone save Strickland himself was tired. Then Davos Seaworth attacked.

Considering the thousands of heavy infantrymen in the Targaryen transports, the Baratheon admiral declined using tactics where close-range fighting played a role. The galleys of the Baratheon navy opened up with their scorpions and other siege engines at long range, every man shouting the now legendary "King Stannis expects every man will do his duty". Their opponents tried to close the distance, but the galleys of the Stormlands were swifter and more nimble, circling around the heavier hulls, dismasting the transports, wrecking carnage on their decks, killing hundreds of sellswords at each passage. The skills of the Golden Company, mainly in pike formations, the dreaded phalanx and the war elephants, were utterly useless. The Targaryen ships sank one by one, until Davos Seaworth signalled his fleet to launch the decisive ramming assault. It was a massacre: seventeen of the twenty-three transports were outright sunk, and with the quantity of metal carried by the Company ships, it was fatal for most of the crew and the soldiers inside the hulls. Harry Strickland and all his subordinates perished when the _Fury Reborn_ slammed into the _Bittersteel_ and the transport broke into two parts.

The Battle of the Dornish Sea was over, the victory going to the forces of King Stannis. Davos Seaworth had lost a single galley (though most of the crew was saved) while Strickland and his naval forces had been soundly thrashed, with one transport and a galley escaping in direction of Dorne. Close to 5000 Golden Company members and 2600 Essossi sellswords went to the bottom of the Sea. The first prong of Aegon VI's decisive attack had been shattered. Still, Jon Connington's part of the fleet was still intact, having been separated before the storm from Strickland detachment. However, his vessels had been even more damaged by the storm than Strickland's group, to the point the former lord of Griffin Roost only reached Stonehelm the day after the Battle of the Dornish Sea was fought. Arriving in front of the ancestral Swann fortress, the surviving Targaryen hulls were a pathetic spectacle, half of the transports having been forced to use their replacements spars, their hulls were tarnished, and some of the oarsmen were forced to throw regularly water from the inside to the outside to avoid sinking. To say Lord Gulian Swann was not impressed by this martial display was a gross understatement.

The lord of Stonehelm knew the reinforcements of King Stannis were on their way, both on land and on sea. He retrenched himself in his ancestral fortress and refused all the offers of Jon Connington asking for his allegiance, despite the pleading of his second son and Kingsguard of the deceased King Tommen, Ser Balon Swann. What was left of the Golden Company (5000 men plus 1900 other sellswords) had no choice but to encircle Stonehelm and begin the laborious process of building the siege engines (most of the previous equipment had been with Strickland and so was unavoidable). They had not long to wait. Not a fortnight had passed that Davos Seaworth and his fleet arrived, sinking in an audacious night-time raid seven more transports (who fortunately were mostly empty) and damaging many others. In the fortified camps around Stonehelm, an army was emerging from the Rainwood. King Stannis Baratheon had arrived.

But the battle didn't immediately begin, against Jon Connington's hopes. Stannis Baratheon had rushed from Storm's End with the troops able to reach the Southern Stormlands with all celerity, which were around 4000 men, a mix of light cavalry and light infantry. As the Targaryen heavy infantry outnumbered the Baratheon army and was retrenched behind extremely well-built positions, assault could only have one issue, and it would not have been a victory for the Stormlanders. The army of the Stormlands thus prepared their own camp, while Lord Seaworth and the Stormlands navy blocked the coast and the Slayne River. Jon Connington rapidly realised the trap he had just created for himself and his army. Caught between a fortress and an enemy army, the supplies of the Targaryen forces were swindling day by day, not helped by the small raids launched by the soldiers loyal to Stannis. Most of the food and equipment was at the bottom of the Narrow Sea. The men bold enough to go drinking in the Slayne River were slaughtered by ambushed skirmishers. Elite archers of the Stormlands sent incendiary arrows in the dragon camp, profiting from the heavy rains which made sure any burning wouldn't propagate. The Essossi soldiers dropped like flies. Moral was very low. And the army of Oberyn Martell, Prince of Dorne, had still not been sighted.

Aware something dreadful had happened to Strickland, the rest of his fleet and Oberyn Martell's army, Jon Connington decided on a great battle to crush King Stannis, or, if the enemy king didn't accept, escape westwards in the direction of the Boneway. By that point, the army flying the dragon banners had less than 5 000 men valid enough to fight. The rest were too wounded, diseases-stricken, or mentally vanquished. They would have to be abandoned. It was a gamble, and if the opponent had been Robert Baratheon, the Stormlands levies certainly would have charged ahead to meet the sellswords on the battlefield. But they were commanded by Stannis Baratheon, and the only son alive of Steffron Baratheon saw no reason to clash with the exiled Lord of Griffin Roost when he had all the cards in his hands. The Stormlands army didn't even bother to leave their fortified positions, unleashing a murderous rain of arrows on the sellswords stupid enough to charge at them. Jon Connington realised there would be no battle this day, stopped the assault and marched north, abandoning his wounded to escape and fight another day. His new destination was the castle of Grandview, where it was hoped the army of Oberyn Martell was waiting for them. Only 4700 men were left. The rest were assaulted by the combined forces of Seaworth, Swann and Baratheon. As most of the wounded were mercenaries who had loved nothing better but raping and murdering the inhabitants of the Stormlands, almost none managed to surrender.

Not that Connington and his army were saved. The march to Grandview was not a pleasure trip, with the climate being stormy and rainy, the Baratheon platoons ambushing small groups again and again and the supplies running short. More than once, Jon Connington ravaged at the head of his troops small villages to find food, razing them completely in the aftermath. Far from terrifying the local population, it only encouraged the smallfolk of the Stormlands to fight back and inflict even more casualties on the Golden Company. Many independent sellswords disappeared in the Rainwood and the mountains to never be seen again by any mortal's eye. After a long and hard travel, only 3400 men survived to reach Grandview. The good news, such as they were, was that the army of Oberyn Martell was effectively there. The bad news were much more numerous. Lord Hugh Grandison had refused to surrender, retrenching himself with his household inside the castle of Grandview and forcing the Dornish army to camp outside. The Martell force had also paid dearly to arrive that far. The castle of Blackhaven, seat of House Dondarrion had fallen, but not without costing Prince Oberyn 2 000 men dead or wounded in exchange. Lord Creighton Dondarrion had escaped the sack of his castle too, and had taken a page from the book of his defunct cousin Lord Beric, raiding the rear of the Martell forces with a band of his retainers he affectionately nicknamed "the Thunder Brotherhood". When Connington and Prince Oberyn made their junction, the Prince of Dorne had only 5 000 men left.

Combined, the two Targaryen commanders had about 8 400 men alive. This was impressive, if one forgot the two men had left Dorne with a total of 22 500 men, which meant nearly two-thirds of their manpower had been erased in the first engagements. Worse, the campaign so far had continued thanks to what was euphemistically named "feeding off the land" but which was translated better by "raping and murdering anyone on the way who don't want to give us food". The Targaryen forces were fed, but it had destroyed any good will the Stormlanders might have had towards Aegon VI's cause (which was scarce anyway after the revelation of what Aerys II had planned for King's Landing). The Stormlands and their inhabitants were now behind King Stannis and his cause to the death. To make the military situation even more complicated, Jon Connington and Oberyn Martell rejected each other the fault of the disastrous offensive, to the point some of his subordinates had to separate them before swords and spears were drawn. The only agreement the two men in charge of Aegon VI's military operations in the Stormlands found was that they probably still had the numerical superiority against King Stannis. Except that was no longer true. The retreat from Stonehelm through Grandview had allowed the master of Storm's End to gather a sizeable force of levies (with winter there, it was no longer necessary to cultivate the fields), giving him a modest force of 9 000 men. The Stormlands army was still devoid of heavy cavalry and infantry (lost in the previous battles of the war or sent to conquer the Reach) but in this case it was almost an advantage, as the opponent had a wall of pikes no knight could hope to charge and live. Preparing to once again besiege Connington between one of his fortresses and his own army, King Stannis was forced to abandon this idea when Oberyn Martell decided the new objective was Grassy Vale, which would be attacked by the mountain passes near Summerhall.

The Great plan of Aegon VI to invade the Stormlands thus ended in a laborious and dramatic withdrawal. The lack of any reliable information on the defences and the forces under King Stannis rule had doomed the entire effort. Not that the new Targaryen King could know it. Emerging from the Prince Pass and bypassing the light garrison of Nightsong, Aegon VI was greeted not by cheers but by the loud calls for help of the Tyrells. As Euron III Greyjoy had at long last launched his great offensive to conquer the Reach...


	45. Winds of Revenge

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Reach and the Ironborn. I don't own Euron Greyjoy, thankfully.

raw666: The campaign in the Stormlands has pretty much ended in disaster, yes. However, Aegon VI's force is still intact, so things aren't too desperate, especially as Stannis hasn't the manpower to invade Dorne (a few naval raids, yes, an invasion no). If Dorne loses their last army, they will have enough manpower to mount (maybe) a guerrilla war on their own lands by calling the militias.

As for the fate of the kings, you will have to wait and see...

TheAlaogano: Stannis has neither the strength nor the logistics right now to occupy Dorne. He has no support there, even if he had not the Reach to deal with. Davos Seaworth is going to launch quite a few raids on undefended Dornish targets, but it will stop there for now.

Oh, Euron is going to use a lot of magic. Dark magic and blood magic...

X59: Indeed, Oberyn and Jon Connington are far too different persons not to disagree with each other. Stannis and his lieutenants being in pursuit will not help things.

Aegon is going to realise what true war is before the end, which is far unlike songs and the reports in the books he had been taught. Varys and Illyrio took no chance in his education, but it didn't involve fighting in real conditions. And here it's a real drawback...

The "Thunder Brotherhood" is far more a regular military unit than the "Brotherhood without Banners" that's for sure. They are going to reappear for the equivalent of commando operations ordered by Stannis.

Master of Dragons God, Guest: Thanks!

Matt Quinn: Thanks for the support as always.

Paul: It's indeed Marianne Vance, but I wanted to emphasize her Frey roots to explain why Roose Bolton chose to marry her.

Small Paul survived the Great Ranging and the fist battle for the Wall. Given what is coming, it remains to be seen if it's a good or bad thing.

For Qhorin and his band, the Night's Watch arriving later than canon at the Fist prevented them to go as far and as a result there was no contact made with the wildlings ( in a snow storm you can be near an entire army and not see anything ). As for the fate of Buckwell, it's simple: every battle can differ from canon. Ghost being there and giving an advance warning, a black brother being a bit too slow, Buckwell being placed in the wrong situation at the wrong time... In canon, he was lucky to survive. Here his luck ran out earlier.

Slynt is not going to play a role in the next election, although the other characters you named will do so.

No one is really happy at Mace for the moment, not even his own side. I have already decided his final fate, and yes what Euron prepares is going to be horrible.

The Golden Company, on the other hand, will have a reputation of losers. They are good fighters, but every war on Westerosi soil ends fatally in another humiliation. What is general opinion supposed to conclude?

And now, we go back to the Reach...

 **Winds of Revenge**

 **The Second Greyjoy Rebellion Part VI**

 _"When this will be over, their f***** Drowned God will only be venerated in Hell!"_ Ser Desmond Redwyne, 300AC.

 _"No prisoners. No mercy. Leave no Ironborn breathing."_ Orders given to the Reach soldiers liberating the Arbor, 300AC.

 _"With the forces of my son Garlan and the army gathered here, recapturing the Shield Islands will not be a problem at all! I have already drawn the plan of Operation Sea Rose, which will once for all put an end to the Greyjoy Rebellions!"_ Lord Mace Tyrell, 300AC.

For obvious reasons, the Battle of Oldtown, while leaving the lords of the Reach with a bitter taste in the mouth, was also seen as a turning point in their war against the longships and Ironborn of Euron III Greyjoy. The servants of the Crow's Eye, despite all their tricks and sorceries, had failed to take the greatest city and harbour of the Reach. 4 000 Ironborn had been slaughtered. Dozens of longships were burnt. Famous captains' heads were now displayed on the gates of Oldtown.

Oldtown, for an impartial observer, was the first clear reverse of Euron III Greyjoy. And to make a bad situation worse, even glorious victories like the Arbor or the Shield Islands revealed themselves too expensive when the price was measured in terms of Islanders lives. The sad truth was that in spite of the lack of strategy and military spirit of the Reach defenders, the Ironborn were so badly outnumbered by the Tyrells and the Hightowers their defeat was ineluctable in the end. With worse than ten-to-one odds, the only question was how long the Greyjoys and their vassals could delay their total and final defeat.

Without the Iron Fleet sent to Meereen, King Euron was left with approximately 350 longships, with one-third in dire need for reparations. It was still the most powerful naval force in Westeros at the moment (of course the other navies were mostly sunk or destroyed right now ) but it was nowhere enough to garrison and patrol the Arbor, the Shield Islands and the large ocean area between the two places.

King Euron evidently felt this was not a problem he wanted to deal with. Transporting the magical loot from the sack of Oldtown Citadel, the Crow's Eye named Lord Rodrik "the Reader" Harlaw as commander of the naval detachment protecting the Arbor while the sinister 'Pinchface' Jon Myre was charged to crush any resistance remaining on the island. Resistance which by the way was largely increasing, due to the fact even the most idiot of the smallfolk had noticed the damaged hulls of the Ironborn fleet were not due to the weather.

If Lord Rodrik Harlaw had felt any inclination to obey the orders of his king, holding the Arbor would have been the next best thing to impossible. The lord of Ten Towers had 2 000 men and slightly more than 40 longships, while the Myre force charged to pacify the Redwyne lands were roughly numbering 1500 men. Hundreds of sellsails, mercenaries and the worst sort of pirates had been recruited to bolster the Ironborn stationed at the Arbor, but these 2 000 more men revealed themselves unable to beat anything more dangerous than a lone soldier. As it was, Lord Rodrik Harlaw felt his obligations to the King of the Iron Islands were not pending anymore. Thanks to a longship messenger sent by his niece Asha Greyjoy, the Lord Reader of Harlaw knew before anyone else the insurrection of the thralls on the Iron Islands. Combined with the insane losses the Ironborn had taken in their Southern campaign so far and the absence of Victarion Greyjoy as enforcer, Lord Rodrik Harlaw had no implacable steel fist threatening him and his bannersmen anymore. By a night without moon, the Harlaw fleet sailed out of Starfish Arbor without anyone in the Myre detachment being the wiser (the fact that nine-tenths of their sailors were drunk also helped), sent the last Euron loyalists among their fleet for a long overdue meeting with the Drowned God (who were rumoured to be less than two per ship) and set sail to return at home.

In the mean time Lord Garlan Tyrell had not stayed inactive. The Battle of Oldtown had unleashed a mountain of anger directed at the murderous Ironborn, and the second son of Mace Tyrell and his Hightowers lieutenants used it for their purposes. In spite of the damages done to the shipyards and the warships, the shipbuilders and artisans of Oldtown manage to erase most of the damage done, repair the least damaged warships and covert some merchants hulls in platform for archers all in a single moon. By then, Ser Desmond Redwyne, new High Admiral of the Reach had now sixty warships under his command and more than 17 000 men to lead the assault to liberate the Arbor.

To say the Myre forces were prepared to counter the assault would be greatly stretching the truth. Five days after Lord Rodrik Harlaw and his fleet disappeared from their position at anchor, 'Pinchface' Myre was still busy lamenting on the subject of cowards and traitors, all the while urging the captains and sellswords under his command to wipe out the Redwyne resistance. Needless to say, that was easier said than done, and of the 3500 men who had been left by King Euron Greyjoy under Myre's authority, less than 2 500 were still breathing. Redwyne knights retrenched in the only castle of the Arbor were the main source of casualties, but surviving bands of smallfolk were also fighting back against the bands of murderers and rapists plaguing the islands. By then, every Ironborn trying to rape a woman had a fifty percent chance to finish with his organs spread on the floor and his genital parts in his mouth. Myre and his Codds, Goodbrothers and Farwynds followers hanged or tore apart five persons for every reaver assassinated, but the retaliation and revenge actions didn't cease. Hostages were also in short supply as time passed.

All of these factors explained why the arrival of the Reach fleet in the Arbor was more or less unopposed. The Ironborn who were not busy hunting the Reach inhabitants still alive were busy looting, drinking so much wine they were unconscious or playing disgusting games like playing with the skulls of their fallen enemies. Only one thing saved them from being annihilated: the Redwyne skirmishers being dispersed over the island, the 17 longships or so available to the Ironborn were also stationed in the ruins of different harbours. Given the state of unpreparedness of Jon Myre and his fellow captains, it didn't save all of them. Lord Garlan Tyrell debarked at the head of 12 000 men and proceeded to hunt the reavers on land while Ser Desmond Redwyne crushed the longships his fleet met at sea one by one.

The Ironborn, not able to form in time a group more numerous than three or four hundreds infantry, were simply overwhelmed by the numbers of the Reach counter-attack. An Ironborn fighter was a dangerous opponent, but fighting at odds like ten-to-one and without any military discipline, the issue was never in doubt. Of the 17 longships and 2500 men of the Ironborn force, only one longship and roughly 200 men of House Goodbrother managed to escape. The rest were massacred where they stood. Seeing the spectacle of desolation the Ironborn had created in what had been one of the wealthiest lands of the Reach, the combined Tyrell-Hightower army was in no mood for mercy. The Ironborn were not a culture where surrender was accepted, but in this case it hardly mattered: all the reavers who fell into the hands of the Reach army and navy were immediately executed, often being tortured to death when the opportunity presented itself. Enraged beyond measure by the atrocities of the islanders, the Redwynes survivors took the opportunity to burn the bodies of their enemies, denying them the right to sitting in the halls of the Drowned God after their death (or whatever place of hell existed for such monsters). Less than five days after the first landing, no Ironborn was left alive on the Arbor.

The Arbor was free again, but the triumph was a sobering one, as the lands and the shipyards which had been House Redwyne's pride were only ruins by now. Anyway, the Ironborn were not completely vanquished. Euron Greyjoy had gathered all his remaining longships around the Shield Islands, and the nobles of the Reach were under no illusion these pirates and murderers would have to be thrown out off there at the soonest opportunity. Lord Mace Tyrell, despite the obvious risks posed by the Targaryen and Baratheon forces in the Marshes and the East, decided to concentrate a large part of his lords remaining strength at the estuary of the Mander on House Graves lands.

As usual with the strategies of lord "Puff-fish" the historians and generals who came after were delighted to describe this plan as particularly stupid. With all the newly trained levies, knights and infantry concentrated in this single place, Lord Tyrell had gathered 34 000 men, but at the price of emptying the rest of the Reach frontiers of experienced soldiers, giving King Aegon VI Targaryen and King Stannis Baratheon the opportunity to occupy strategic positions in the Eastern Reach and the Marches. But there was also the darker fact House Graves had no major fortress for seat, just a middle-sized keep which defences had seen better days. It was absolutely not a position from which break the brunt of an enemy assault. Also easy to blame on Lord Mace Tyrell was how few reserves could be engaged if things turned badly, with only his elder son Willas Tyrell having a garrison of 5 000 archers and light infantry at Highgarden. And of course, the Lord of Highgarden had never even imagined the Crow's Eye had the intention to attack him after the losses suffered until then in the Second Greyjoy Rebellion...


	46. War of Dishonour

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Eyrie or House Arryn either.

raw666: There will be no civil war in the Reach for the short-term future, not with Euron next door.

A lot of lords are now fighting against House Arryn, more details in this chapter. Even for those who support Lysa, it's more for the gains than true loyalty really.

Sansa and Arya... their role is going to climb in importance as the War for the Dawn begins. And yes, any pairing for these two will be extremely interesting.

TheAlaogano: Indeed, although you have to remember the writer is having hindsight of what is about to happen.

For all intent and purposes, the Ironborn are already destroyed. What they're fighting with, is all they will have for a long, long time.

X59: To be fair, Mace is unaware (as is the rest of the Reach) of Euron putting his hand on magical weapons of mass destruction. So his confidence is somewhat understandable, even if humility should still have its place after Euron has managed to do.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for the review.

Guest: It's coming...

Nerdman3000: Thank you for your support and glad you're enjoying the format of my story. As for the punctuation and space errors, I will correct them as soon as I have the time, I promise.

Matt Quinn: Yes, yes Sea Rose is indeed a not so subtle reference to a certain plan demanded by a deranged Austrian to invade Britain...

Darthas: unfortunately you're right, as the legions of the White Walkers are marching and the North will be the first kingdom on the frontlines. That isn't to say things are infinitely better than canon, though.

Paul: True, but each character being present at a battle is due in general (and most of the time in ASOIAF) to specific circumstances. If you change one thing, well...The Vale of Arryn is coming in this chapter.

Rodrik and Theon are going to regroup at Ten Towers. It's the best base to observe and deal with the situation on the Iron Islands, Casterly Rock is simply too far to be an effective base of supply. Drumm, Harras Harlaw and a lot of 'moderates' are still on the Shield Islands; they weren't with Rodrik when he defected.

Victarion is going to make a return in force in the next chapter, be prepared!

Euron, the magical powers, the fate of the Reach fleet and Mace army, all will be told in the next Reach/ Ironborn chapter which will be chapter 51 if I'm not mistaken. And it's not going to be pretty at all...

One ship of House Goodbrother indeed escaped the Arbor in time, though their fate will only be told when Euron final offensive will have met its end.

And now, we return to the Vale...

 **War of Dishonour**

 **War Comes to the Vale Part II**

 _"Who cares about honour? I want war!"_ Ser Lyn Corbray, 300AC.

 _"Lady Arryn ordered me to send your heads to the Eyrie. It will be a pleasure to obey."_ Lord Gerold Grafton, 300AC.

 _"I don't know who repaired the walls of Gulltown, but I thank him. The work of our trebuchets was so much easier than it should have been."_ Lord Yohn Royce, 300AC.

 _"To the ships!"_ Unknown Soldier, battle of Gulltown, 300AC

Contrary to one should have expected from the Vale, the bannersmen of House Arryn were badly prepared for the civil war which started in 300AC. While in hindsight the lords and knights of the Vale should have made preparations for this situation given the fact that many Houses stayed loyal to the Targaryens during Robert's Rebellion, in practise too many of the war leaders had grown complacent during the Long Summer. The tourneys and small-scaled raids of the Mountain Clans were the only examples of military actions available to the nobility of the Eastern Kingdom. The death of Harrold Hardyng, with absolutely no warning, unleashed open warfare in the heart of their lands at a moment many believed the War of the Eight Kings was well and truly over. With House like Royce, Waynwood, Belmore and Redfort in the rebellion from the very beginning, the danger to the Arryn rule and the Eyrie was extreme. Not only these lords were now rebelling under the mad rule of the woman reigning in the Eyrie, but more and more forces were joining the rebel side day by day. The Shetts of Gull Tower, House Ruthermont, House Tollett, House Coldwater, House Donniger and House Egen sent ravens to the castle of Runestone, sealing their fate with the Royces. House Hersy and Lipps also declared for the Waynwood cause, openly shouting the murder of a knight without trial was a crime in the eyes of the Gods. So did the Knight of the Nine Stars, Ser Symond Templeton and his Knightly House.

By contrast, the number of Houses staying loyal to the Arryns was small and limited. Houses Grafton, Lynderly and Shett of Gulltown proudly boasted their support to the Eyrie in this dramatic hour, but few men in the Vale dared to follow this cause. House Upcliff and Waxley publically chose to confirm Lord Robert Arryn as the legitimate Lord of the Vale, but most of their military force never left home, with only barely trained levies sent to Gulltown. Many lords instead chose to remain neutral like the Melcolm of Old Anchor or the Moore. The Houses of the Three Sisters, the Pebble and the Paps didn't even bother to reply by a formal letter to the offer of the two sides.

In these conditions, the men loyal to the Eyrie faced a serious military disadvantage: in spite of Gulltown and House Grafton's dominance of the Bay of Crabs, it was Lord Yohn Royce and Lady Anya Waynwood who could gather and muster their troops without encountering any serious opposition. With Nestor Royce at the Gates of the Moon still debating where laid his loyalties, most of the troops loyal to Lord Robert Arryn were only concentrated at the Bloody Gate or the Sunkenwood. Too far to intervene in the early battles.

Lord Gerold Grafton and Gulltown were as a result alone to defend themselves against the combined might of the Royces, the Waynwoods, the Tolletts, the Hersys and the Shetts of Gull Tower. In terms of manpower it wasn't so bad. Gulltown had large and solid walls, the garrison was numerous as it was the only true city of the Vale, and Lord Grafton could rely on the best knights and men-at-arms money could buy. At full muster, the defences of Gulltown under the eldest of Lord Gerold's alive sons, Ser Gylbert Grafton were now numbering around 12 000 men, against 8 000 men or so from the Royce-Waynwood coalition.

Appearances, however, were badly misleading. The walls of Gulltown, once breached by Robert and his famous warhammer in the Rebellion eighteen years ago, had been repaired by money-makers more interested in filling their pockets with gold than ensuring the work they did was correct. The ranks of the Gulltown officers had been filled by extremely well-paid knights and professional soldiers, the best money could buy, so good in fact these men considered a duty to search for new and inventive ways to relieve their subordinates and the merchants of the city of their income. Ser Gylbert Grafton was an arrogant and man, eager to avenge the death of his brother Marq at the battle of Gulltown against Robert Baratheon. This was bad for defenders, as Lord Yohn Royce was surely the most experienced battle commander the Vale had seen in this last century. Soon, siege engines were built in record's time put into position and unleashed their fury on the walls and ramparts of Gulltown. Too predictably, the ragtag reparations made in the structure itself of the walls, while impressive from the eye of an observer at ten leagues, revealed to be terribly vulnerable against the massive projectiles Lord Royce exploded against them. In less than three days, the walls of Gulltown were crumbling, and it was only a question of time before a breach was created and the final assault was launched.

As the siege engines on the walls of the besieged city were terribly lacking in range (when they worked, corruption had played a part here too), the Grafton and their allies had only two choices left. The first was doing nothing, in which case the attackers would breach the walls sooner or later (given the large cracks in the walls sooner was more likely) and then enter the city and sack it. The other strategy was to risk a nightly raid outside the walls, in order to destroy the trebuchets. Once the siege engines were destroyed, the siege could last, well... until the Royce's built newer siege engines or Lady Lysa Arryn sent reinforcements. The Graftons and their allies present (most of them Shett and Upcliff) could not know it, but these relief troops had no intention in coming. House Lynderly was on the offensive on the lands of House Coldwater, which just happened to be on the other direction. Lord Horton Redfort was marching on Wickenden to besiege it. And Ser Lyn Corbray, one of the deadliest knight of the Vale, had decided this war needed his enthusiastic participation. So far, the bearer of the Valyrian blade Lady Forlorn was roaming in the Vale countryside, defying in duel and killing any force which had the bad luck to cross his way.

Of course Lord Gerold did not know this, as the captains of his fleet made the most ridiculous excuses to not sail away from Gulltown (their tales of krakens, unlike on the Western coast of Westeros, were never confirmed by any reliable witness ), the audacious plan of Ser Gylbert Grafton was approved. The heir of House Grafton would lead 4 000 men through the gates of his home city, hoping darkness and surprise could carry the night and damage significantly the trebuchets and the other siege weapons. It was a fool's errand. Lord Yohn Royce had protected the trebuchets by the elite guards of his own household, knowing they were the only thing of value for the assault. Royce and Waynwood sentinels were also placed near the gates, warning their own side of any enemy sally. The raid of Gylbert Grafton had not closed half the distance to the siege engines that already most of the troops in front of him were running to their positions, lighting the torches and preparing their bows and arbalests. The sane decision would have been to immediately withdraw. Ser Gylbert was neither experienced nor skilled enough to understand the danger. The Grafton cavalry, forgetting its goals, tried to charge straightforward the enemy, believing they could reach the trebuchets. Unfortunately, a wall of pikes welcomed them. The only reason any troops of Gulltown survived this attack was because, in spite of all Lord Royce preparations, not every soldiers of his army had been quick enough to take position. In the middle of the night, still a quarter of the men were leaving their tents when first blood was shed. Historians would estimate the two forces had roughly numerical parity at the beginning of the fight. That was not say the participants didn't bleed. Half of the Grafton cavalry involved, more or less 250 men, was slaughtered by the heavy infantry of the Royces. The light infantry, caught between the hammer of the Waynwoods and the anvil of the Hersys and the Tolletts, panicked, surrendered or fled. Of the 4 000 men having left Gulltown, less than 1 400 managed to come back. Ser Gylbert Grafton was not among them. Losses for Lord Yohn Royce were less than 500 killed and wounded.

The death of House Grafton's heir and the heavy losses suffered in the sally plunged Gulltown in despair. Worst, there was the certainty it had all been for nothing. Two hours after dawn, the dreaded trebuchets began once again their work of destruction and never stopped anymore; proof the attackers had understood the desperate straits of the defenders. Incendiary projectiles were now sent by new catapults over the walls. In the distance, siege towers were built. Scorpions reaped a murderous harvest on the walls. Six days after the death of Lord Gerold's eldest son, disaster struck. A large part of the main wall on the northern side entirely collapsed, burying approximately two hundred Grafton soldiers in the rubble. Order in the city was now almost gone, houses were burning, half of the officers were now openly speaking of surrender.

Against all logic, many of the common soldiers stayed at their post, although for many it was because the only ways to escape were now on fire or blocked by rocks and rubble. For the others, it was the will to defend their families from the sack and the wave of destruction that was threatening the city. Anyway, they were 3 000 infantrymen to receive the charge in the breach of 5 000 attackers. At the same moment, another siege engine opened a second breach in the great wall of Gulltown, making this action a hopeless last stand. Deprived of their senior commanders (who were busy fleeing in direction of the ships), the Gulltown soldiers did their best. Their best wasn't enough. Against veterans of Robert's Rebellion, barely trained levies were easy prey, and their ramshackle training and the cheap equipment they wore didn't improve the rapport of force. The breach held less than ten minutes. Ser Uther Shett and many others courageous knights died there. The rest was pure slaughter. Hundreds of Graftons levies were massacred, as were civilians caught in the crossfire. The defenders vacillated. And then a man shouted "To the Ships!". What remained of cohesion died there. The Upcliffs, Graftons and Shetts troops threw down their weapons and ran to the harbour, abandoning the idea of resisting a minute longer.

Lord Gerold Grafton gathered what was left of his supporters and retrenched himself in his dungeon, but the outcome was not in doubt anymore. At the harbour, thousands of soldiers and civilians drowned or were murdered in the chaos of trying to reach a ship to escape the city. Alas, most of the so-called knights, officers and important merchants had been largely more far-seeing than the smallfolk. The relatively large merchant and war fleet of Gulltown was leaving the harbour, leaving only crowded and old vessels for thousands. More than a hull broke and sunk, sending hundreds of persons to their doom in the frigid water.

The Battle of Gulltown lasted one more night and day. A night of horrors. A day to launch the final assault on the dungeon where Lord Gerold Grafton and his entire household died rather than surrender. The Waynwoods soldiers and their allies tore apart the city to extinguish all resistance, and when the sun finally set on the Mountains of the Moon, the sea and the earth were bathed in a dark crimson, so great were the quantities of blood which had been shed. The true question of course was to wonder if it had been really worth it. House Grafton and their continuous defiance in the last decades was no more, but the length of the delay had given ideas to others parties. Seeing an opportunity, a large band of Mountain clans under the infamous Timett of the Burned Men descended the mountains and besieged the Gates of the Moon. No matter the perspective, the future of House Arryn appeared really dark...


	47. Blood for the Dragons

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own dragons, thankfully.

raw666: Alas, poor Petyr Baelish has more pressing problems personally than running to the Vale to deal with Lysa. He can send her ravens certainly, but given the mental state of the woman.

In the Reach, defections are for the moment limited to a few knights, through a certain event is going to make the desertions skyrocket and make the Tyrells realise how perilous their position is...

X59: As Grafton was the main node loyal to Lysa Arryn, the surviving Arryns loyalists are not really numerous now. Some will even changes sides after the battle of Gulltown. The Mountain clans and the Rebels are going to concentrate on each other, that's a given. And Lyn Corbray is soon going to face major issues unleashed by his private war.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks!

Guest: Chapter coming...

Matt Quinn: It's a problem with this sort of writing: I can do a theatre in two or three chapters, but then the history elsewhere is lagging behind. Or I make one chapter per theatre in which case, they don't come as often the readers like. Did not find any good solution to this problem, honestly.

No equivalent of the Golden Spurs for now, the Gulltown militia was so corrupt it would have required a minor miracle for them to oppose an efficient resistance to cavalry. The sack was brutal, yes, the Royce faction was forced to besiege the city twice in their lives, and wanted to ensure there would be no third time. Notice however the sack which happened under Robert Baratheon is not really mentioned in the books. Leniency or winners memory lapse?

Darthas: To be fair, most of the Vale lords have no idea how much Baelish and Lysa decided to screw them during the hostilities with the North (though they begin to realise it and may discover the truth in the next book). As for Lysa, I have planned her demise, although it will be difficult to beat what happened to her in canon.

Paul: Well Desmond and Garlan are the commanders and must lead by example. If they're not willing to face the Ironborn, who will? Some of the 'moderates' Ironborn will flee. Others will try to mount armed resistance.

House Hunter is siding with House Royce, as is Ser Lucas Corbray. Lord Lyonel Corbray was neutral before Gulltown's sack. Lord Grafton died with the last defenders of Gulltown. His entire family is extinct. As for Ser Lyn, his behaviour will find an explanation in the next Vale chapter.

And now we go to Essos...

 **Blood for the Dragons**

 **The Battle of Meereen**

 _"Feed them to the dragons!"_ Victarion Greyjoy, when an Unsullied commander remarked there was no means to bury all the corpses of the Battle of Meereen, 300AC.

 _"A red dawn is rising. The swords will be shaken, spears will be broken... but above all we are going to kill a lot of greenlanders today!"_ Victarion Greyjoy, 300AC.

 _"Are the dragons on our side or not?"_ Anonymous Meereenese soldier, 300AC.

When specialists of Essossi history speak of the Essossi Apocalypse, a subject which always comes back is the Battle of Meereen. Or, in the words of Archmaester Marwyn, "how stupidity allowed the forces fighting under the Targaryen banner to destroy an army which outnumbered more than four-to-one". It is difficult to argue against the venerable Archmaester, especially when the evidence is so damning for the Slavers Coalition.

All around Meereen, considerable forces had been concentrated to put an end to the threat represented by Daenerys Targaryen, the Breaker of Chains. New Ghis had sent six of its legions, roughly 36 000 men and one hundred armoured and towered war elephants. Yunkai had put every slave they could find under chains and came with 32 000 men. The Company of the Cat had also been paid by the Wise Masters of Yunkai, bringing 3 000 men more. 6 massive trebuchets, one thousand "elite guards" supposed to be on par with the Unsullied (and as such tasked to protect the Wise Masters), 800 men of the Long Lances Company and 500 members of the Second Sons Company ended this contribution to the war effort. Qarth had sent 2000 soldiers, 40 war galleys and 1 500 men of its Qartheen camel corps. Elyria had managed to convince 2500 of its crossbowmen to participate in what promised to be a sack of extraordinary violence, with seven war galleys adding their strength to the naval blockade of the city. Tolos forces were numbering 1400 men, mostly slingers and three dozen carracks. The city of Mantarys ended this list with 5 000 men and twenty ships (half of them war galleys and the rest transports). All in all, the coalition fighting to safeguard slavery had gathered in a single place 103 warships of all sorts, approximately 85 700 men, 100 war elephants and six massive trebuchets to breach Meereen massive walls.

On the other side, Daenerys Targaryen and her commanders had only 10 000 Unsullied, along with some 10 000 militia and civil guard named the Brazen Beasts. Some seven hundred sellswords. Three war elephants. And two dragons. Except, of course, the Mother of Dragons had the greatest difficulty to control her children, and as such was unable to destroy in one fell swoop the enemy army. To make matters worse, the forces besieging Meereen were not the whole might of the Slavers Coalition. A formidable fleet was sailing from Volantis to Meereen at that very moment, 540 war galleys and 92 transports, a mighty fleet like this world had rarely seen. More than a quarter million men were aboard. Once this fleet arrived to Slaver's Bay, all hope of victory would have disappeared for Daenerys Targaryen.

Still, this large coalition of leaders from every part of Essos had not a common agenda. Some sellswords leaders were here solely for the plunder, while others only wanted a reestablishment of slavery. Negotiations opened between the Queen of Meereen, and the Targaryen queen married Hizdahr zo Loraq in order to broker peace. Alas, while the defenders wanted an end to the hostilities, the besiegers were rather adverse to it. There was no plunder to gain if blood was not shed. Each time the Meereenese accepted one demand, the Yunkais and their allies made another, more insistent and disgusting than the former. Slavery was to be authorised again. The ugly pit arenas were to be opened again. Some Meereenese, thrown out of their positions of power, made their great return at the council governing the city. Hostages were to be sent to the camp outside.

In spite of the odds being totally against it, Daenerys Targaryen managed to broker peace again. It was a calm which did not last. At the day of the arenas opening again, several assassinations missed by inches to end the life of Meereen's queen. Reports are very stretchy on the event of that fateful day, but the Queen herself escaped on the dragon Drogon, while in the panic several Yunkai nobles were murdered. 'King' Hizdahr was thrown in a prison cell, his main supporters were executed or shared his fate. The hostilities were finally about to begin. Ser Barristan Selmy took command of the army in the absence of his Queen.

Fate however had one more string to break before the swords were drawn. In the middle of the night, a force of Dornish and Windblown sellswords managed to enter Meereen and free the dragons Viserion and Rhaegal. The forces protecting the two enormous lizards had been minimal: dragons were invulnerable to any conventional weapon, barring the deadliest poisons and huge siege weapons. This small force, under Prince Quentyn Martell, had hoped to control the dragons. This was a dangerous folly. While Prince Quentyn himself managed to run out of the pit in time to save his life, 15 Windblown and Ser Archibald Yronwood were burnt to death. Quentyn Martell and Ser Gerris Drinkwater were the only survivors of this action, and were unable to do anything to prevent Viserion and Rhaegal from escaping the pyramid where they were chained and flying away. The two Dornish were captured by Ser Barristan's men, and assigned under guard in the Queen's palace.

The battle was now unavoidable. The Yunkai commanders sent now at regular intervals of time diseased corpses inside the city by way of their trebuchets, hoping the bloody flux would spare them the bloody task of breaching and storming the walls. In the air, the dragons were circling, mangling and burning every battalion unfortunate enough to have wandered too far from the main formations. The Great Battle of Meereen which was about to seal the fate of an entire continent could begin.

Like any siege of this period, diseases made the choice of staying behind the walls an impossible one. Ser Barristan Selmy decided to go on the offensive despite being terribly outnumbered. His first sally would concentrate on the sellswords troops, judged to be the most battle-experienced and the most dangerous threat. During this time, the Yunkais executed all the hostages in their possession, including some of the Queen's closest advisors like Daario Naharis, Jhogo, Groleo and Hero. In turn, the guards known as the Brazen Beasts began a bloody purge of Meereen's nobility, killing everyone they suspected from being affiliated in some way or another to the Sons of the Harpy. The battle began at dawn, with the arrival of unexpected reinforcements for the Targaryen loyalists: none other than Victarion Greyjoy and his Iron fleet. The Ironborn Lord Captain had travelled from the Arbor to the Slaver's Bay in record time for the season, and now his 39 massive longships and 15 captured merchants, along with 4200 reavers attacked.

It was there the stupidity and the lack of plans doomed the Essossi Coalition. In terms of sheer power, the Essossi fleet was vastly more powerful than the Ironborn one, outnumbering it tow-to-one in terms of hulls. But the Ironborn were wolves of the sea, while the Qartheen and their fellow captains had grown happy, lazy, fat and confident, the Meereen fleet being too weak to sally and defy them. The shock was particularly brutal. Much like at the Shield Islands, the Arbor or Fair Isle, the Ironborn neither offered nor accepted any quarter. Screaming their famous war cry "What is dead may never dies!", the Ironborn proceeded to turn the sea where they were fighting red from the blood of their victims. The Mantarys and Tolos ships, who received the first assault, were rammed and expedited to the bottom of the Bay without even having sounded the signal to prepare for battle. Not that the others fared much better. Victarion Greyjoy was in a bloodthirsty rage this day, and massacred with his gigantic axe any Qartheen or Essossi idiot enough to search a confrontation with him. One by one, a rapid combination of fireships and lightning ramming attacks doomed the blockade force. The fleet of Qarth, which fancied itself the best navy of all known seas, sunk that day in Slaver's Bay with the knowledge their boasts were out of touch with reality. After several hours, what few Mantarys or Qarth warships were still floating chose to escape when it was possible. Lacking now any opponents at sea the Iron Fleet landed. In the middle of a carnage of epic proportions.

The charge of Ser Barristan Selmy with 500 cavalrymen and 5000 Unsullied following him had literally pulverised the formation of the Yunkai forces. Of course, perhaps the structure of said commandment had not helped. The Yunkai generals, numbering seventeen, had the habit to command for one day and then pass the supreme command to one of their fellow generals. Except Ser Barristan initial strike had killed Ghorzak zo Eraz (also known by the nickname of Pudding Face or the Dirty Pig) when pit fighters surprised him in his tent, naked in his bed with several slaves. As a consequence, each of the sixteen remaining commanders decided he/she was in command and sent his own troop movements to the officers of his army. The final result was an unimaginable confusion. The Company of the Cat stayed on their positions, letting the Second Sons and the Long Lances be massacred by the Meereenese Freemen and the Unsullied. The Company of the Windblown changed sides again, deciding the Meereenese side offered more guarantees of victory. Chained to their comrades, the Yunkai slaves perished by the hundreds, all the while inflicting desultory losses to their opponents. Only the legions of New Ghis managed to keep their calm and their formation in this chaos, but the disintegration of the rest of the coalition forces was such Selmy and all his troops could concentrate on them. Of the six massive trebuchets, five were now destroyed. In the sky, the dragons threw vast clouds of flame, burning every human daring enough to try a strike at them. The elephants fell under a storm of arrows and spears.

Then the Ironborn landed and what was before a slaughter became a general bloodbath. Until then, except a few pit gladiators (which had not lasted long), no one had been threatening the rear of the Slavers Coalition. And even if someone had done so, the massive size of the Yunkai, New Ghis, Mantarys and sellsword army had been judged 'enough' to fight on two fronts. Except it was no longer the case. The Yunkai troops were taking monstrous losses, the contingents from Tolos and Elyria were wiped out, of the sellswords only the Company of the Cat was holding its positions. Five of the six legions from New Ghis were fully engaged in the battle (although the correct term for one was 'wiped out' as the dragon Rhaegal had torched it alive). The last thing this ramshackle excuse for an army needed was to be caught between the hammer of the Ironborn and the steel anvil of the Unsullied. But it was exactly what happened. That was not to say it was a good thing for Ser Barristan Selmy and his troops. Usually, caught in such a situation, an army would utterly break, letting the victorious side pursue them until night and fatigue made them stop. But here it was impossible. The ships which had brought the vast majority of the invading Coalition force there were sunk or captured. Their vast camp was in flames, courtesy of the dragon Viserion. The Essossi were trapped between two smaller forces, none of them feeling inclined to agree on any surrender demands. Most of the Yunkai "elite guards" and the other Essossi mustering tried to flee, trampling each other in the general chaos. The Company of the Cat and the legions of New Ghis, however, held their ground to the death. And while these legions were not the equals of the legendary warriors of Old Ghis, they didn't fight dragon riders and magicians of Old Valyria either. The Ironborn and the Unsullied were forced to pay a heavy price in flesh and blood to erase the Ghis resistance.

When the sun set upon the vast city of Meereen, the remnants of a legion were still resisting, though by now their doom was a certainty. Victarion Greyjoy, still fighting despite the length of the battle, was hammering the Ghis soldiers at the head of his reavers. At the same time, the pikes of the Unsullied tore apart the enemy ranks, clearing the way for the less disciplined Freedmen. As the sun disappeared for the time being, the battle ended, in the screams of agony of the last legionaries.

The Great Battle for Meereen was over. Never in the last two hundred years had Essos seen such a mighty class of swords and spears, nor a butchery of such a magnitude. The plain before the greatest city of Slaver's Bay was littered with corpses. The bay was red of the flames burning the ships and the blood of the sailors. The gigantic trebuchets were lying in the rubble. The war elephants had collapsed dead, victims of too many arrows, dragon fire, spear strikes or bolts from siege engines. Everywhere the eyes of a man could carry, it was a spectacle of end of the world. Slaves and generals, elephants and horses: all were united in death. Sadly, these were only the first signs of what was coming. The thousands who had died were only a warning of what was to come. Far to the north, an army of a size never seen before was gathering. On the seas, a massive fleet was entering the Gulf of Grief. The Essos Apocalypse had truly begun.


	48. Wrath of the Dragon Empress

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Meereen. I am not a certain author who ends a book in a monumental cliff-hanger and then don't publish the next one for more than five years...

raw666: The fleet is the one sent by Volantis, which didn't arrive in time for the battle (and are still far away thanks to contrary winds).

X59: The meeting happen in this chapter, and it won't be a joyous one. Enjoy!

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for the review.

tthorn: I plan to marry Robb before he dies, yes, but not to Margaery or Daenerys. Both are really too far from him at the moment, and frankly no Stark has any particular will to marry a Targaryen after what happened to Aerys. Margaery would be a serious candidate, but such a marriage would be rightly considered treasonous by Stannis and Loras Tyrell would pay it with his life.

Guest: Coming soon...

Matt Quinn: In this chapter the Dothraki. In the future, you will have to wait to know.

Darthas: Correct. As for Black Crusade, well Westeros can be compared to Warhammer pretty easily. There are no Chaos Gods, though. Thanks for the support!

Paul: Archibald Yronwood intervened to save Quentyn from his act of stupidity with the dragons and as a result didn't survive. It's unjust, but so is the fact that the hostages were all executed (and something which will likely happen in canon too, after all their own hostages were killed, they are more likely than not to return the favour. Hizdhar was not executed, he's just imprisoned and no one cares about him for the time being.

Compared to the Battle of Meereen, Gulltown was a mere skirmish in the numbers of fighters on each side. Victarion will act as Victarion. He's not reputed for his intelligence, and even less so for his nobility. A lot of the Meereenese associated with the slave trade were executed in the battle. The survivors are properly terrified.

Dagmer Cleftjaw is with Euron at the Shield Islands. Not that his presence would have made a lot of difference...

And Daenerys is coming back with fire and blood in this chapter...

 **Wrath of the Dragon Empress**

 **The Essos Apocalypse Part II**

 _"It is as well war is so terrible, otherwise too many would grow fond of it."_ Ser Barristan Selmy, 300AC.

 _"Trust an Ironborn to always make the worst possible decision."_ King Stannis Baratheon, 300AC.

 _"No one but the Valyrians ever controlled dragons. Mastering them was in their blood, and most of their secrets died with the Doom."_ Archmaester Marwyn, 300AC.

Summing up the Battle of Meereen as "devastating" was a good way to describe things in 300AC. When the fires were put down and the swords finally thrown down due to the length of the fighting, the size of the casualties was revealed in all its horror.

Of the 20 000 men Barristan Selmy had led to battle on this fateful day, nearly 4 200 Freedmen and 3 500 Unsullied had perished, along with all the pit gladiators who came out to fight. The Company of the Stormcrows and the Windblown (the latter which had changed sides at the beginning of the battle) had seen the better part of their forces destroyed on the bloody battlefield. The three war elephants under Targaryen command had not survived long. The list of the famous fighters having perished was also horrendous: two of the three Freedmen commanders, Symon Stripeback and Tal Torak perished against the legions of New Ghis. Daario Naharis, commander of the Stormcrows, had been executed while he was a hostage, and his seconds in command The Widower and Jokin fell leading a charge against the Ghis war elephants. The Tattered Prince would never see Pentos again, having been one of the many sellswords and mercenaries of the day slain by the Qartheen camel corps. Nor would many of his officers and most infamous fighters like Caggo the Corpsekiller and Denzo D'han. The Brazen beasts, while not involved in the carnage outside the walls, had suffered major casualties holding the walls and purging the city of Meereen of any presence from the Sons of the Harpy. Ser Barristan Selmy, who had managed to emerge from the battle only with minor injuries, pronounced then his famous sentence: "It is as well war is so terrible, otherwise too many would grow fond of it."

Not that the Slavers Coalition generals would have disagreed, if one of them had managed to escape alive. That was not the case. Less than a thousand men of the legions of Old Ghis had survived to surrender (of an initial force of 36 000) and their commanders had not been among them. The Yunkai slave soldiers had been torn apart, with 3000 prisoners and a number of deaths approaching the 20 000. Their initial seventeen generals at the beginning of the battle had all met ghastly deaths. The survivors were all fleeing southwards, with absolutely no intention to besiege Meereen ever again. The 3 000 men of the Company of the Cat and their bloodthirsty leader Bloodbeard had been massacred to the last, their enjoyment for all kind of atrocities ensuring they would find no one to accept their surrender. The expeditionary forces from Mantarys, Tolos, Elyria and Qarth had a few survivors' prisoners, but their whole strength had been crushed on the battlefield. The sellsword company of the Long Lances had about 50 men left, but Gyles Rhegan had died, burnt alive by the dragon Rhaegal. All the officers and 470 men of the Second Sons had been hammered by the troops of Victarion Greyjoy, which meant its leaders Ben Plumm and Kasporio were somewhere in the thousands of corpses littering the vicinity of Meereen. Concerning the naval forces, eight ships (out of 103) survived to carry the news of the disaster to the other harbours of Slaver's bay and Essos.

Because it was exactly that: an epic disaster. Of the 87500 men gathered from all Essos, about 9 000 men were prisoners. The vast majority of the rest, plus the war elephants, were dead. According to the estimations of Archmaester Marwyn which had just arrived on the scene of the battle, about 54 000 men of the Slavers Coalition had perished to preserve the centuries-old status quo of Essos. Combined with the loss of virtually the entire leadership of the expeditionary force, and the consequences passed from catastrophic to terrifyingly awful. The 20 000 or so survivors who had fled to escape the butchery were now dispersed all over an area the size of the Stormlands, and were never going to be an effective fighting force ever again. Yunkai was now without any military force, and most importantly, without hope.

In the short term, the cities having participated in the Slavers Coalition had a little time before them. In the absence of Daenerys Targaryen, it was a trio of men who was in control of Meereen: Skahaz mo Kandaq, Barristan Selmy and the commander of the Unsullied Grey Worm. Not only this unlikely trio of two former slaves and one Westerosi knight had to burn all the corpses resulting to the battle to prevent the bloody flux spreading again, but they had also to re-establish something like cohesion in their civilian and military hierarchy, both of which had been shredded in the last week. They had also to deal with Victarion Greyjoy, Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet.

Proportionally, the Ironborn had suffered the least casualties of all the sides participating in the battle. However, they were also one of the sides which had the least numbers in this battle. With 4200 reavers and a few hundred auxiliaries, the Ironborn had been so badly outnumbered by the Essossi fleet and land forces it was a minor miracle they were still an Iron Fleet, never mind victorious. The fearless nature of the captains of the Iron Fleet had undoubtedly played a role, as did their nature to ignore the odds when there was a battle near them. Still, about a thousand and two hundred were feasting in the Drowned God's hall by now, and about eight longships had been sunk or so badly wrecked it made no difference. These losses, which once again the Ironborn could definitely not afford, put Victarion Greyjoy in a black rage when he learnt the woman he searched, Queen Daenerys Targaryen, was not here.

The vast majority of the population of Meereen, who loved their Dragon Queen, were completely outraged by the insults and threats the son of Quellon Greyjoy made this day in front of the Great Pyramid. If not for the authority of Barristan Selmy and his fellow co-rulers, it was entirely possible a second Battle of Meereen would have broken here and there. Fortunately, even a man as lacking in intelligence as Victarion Greyjoy could understand what a bad idea it was to begin hostilities with an army of Unsullied which had just eliminated its weakest members the day before.

That was not to say Victarion was ready to wait for things to settle down. Advised by a Red Priest from Volantis named Moqorro, the Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet decided that if he could not have the dragon queen, then at least he would have the dragons themselves. His brother Euron had given him a dragon horn; they were two dragons nearby (which were still digesting the vast quantities of meat eaten in the battle). Luck was with him. Unfortunately for the reavers, no one had told them the horn could bind only one dragon. And that the blood sacrifices for this magical act were not one or two lives, but rather in the hundred threshold.

The action which followed was pure murder, Victarion and Moqorro forcing many captured slaves to sound the horn, all the while bathing it in the blood of the Yunkais and Ghiscari prisoners they massacred against all common decency. Finally Viserion, the white dragon was bound to Greyjoy's will. That was the only good news for the Ironborn, though. The Meereenese had finally understood what the traitorous reavers were doing, and ranks upon ranks of Unsullied sallied out of the walls of Meereen to put an end to this terrible insult to their Queen. The Essossi prisoners, finally understanding what fate awaited them (there was still the possibility of one dragon to be bound) broke their chains and launched themselves against their captors. Not wanting to risk how deep his control of his controlled dragon was (that and the little fact he was massively outnumbered and the dragon Rhaegal was showing signs to intervene), Victarion ordered the retreat to the longships. It was not that simple of course. The uprising of the prisoners had already caused chaos, and numerous Ironborn had looted the destroyed camp in search of ale, wine and other alcoholic beverages. Those who had abused from the drink too much were sleeping too deeply for such a thing like a mere battle to wake them, and were put in chains without the opportunity to fight. All told, only twenty-two longships and about two thousand reavers achieved to depart Meereen with Victarion Greyjoy and the bound Viserion. The rest of the warships were captured by the Unsullied, and the Ironborn slain or taken prisoners and thrown into the cells under the pyramids.

The Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet could not know it, but he had just made a very grievous mistake. Not only the Ironborn power was literally dying in Westeros as he stole the white dragon, but Daenerys Targaryen was not dead. Far from it. Thousands of leagues away in the Dothraki Sea, the Dragon Queen prepared her return. The khalasar of Khal Jhaqo was the first force unfortunate to met Drogon and the last heiress of Valyria. It was a surprise for the Khal and the young woman. A bad surprise for Jhaqo. The man had raped several times a servant of Daenerys before giving her to his men and killing her just after Khal Drogo's death, with the only justification for this barbaric act the point he had been denied this when his master was alive. Now fate came back with a vengeance. In a single pass, Drogon devastated the khalasar, killing and burning hundreds of Dothraki warriors. His troops fleeing or cutting their braids in submission, Jhoqo and his bloodriders, men who had abandoned Khal Drogo at the earliest opportunity, found themselves facing a truly impossible situation. Dothraki arrows and arakhs were useless against Drogon, who ate the Khal and his last followers alive, limb by limb. After that, the Dothraki changed their allegiance rather quickly, having no ambition to follow their leader as a meal for the terrifying black dragon. In less than one hour, Daenerys Targaryen gained fifteen thousand riders to her cause.

This was the first step for the Targaryen queen in her quest to forge herself a new army. On a dragon back, it was easily feasible to cross the endless Dothraki Sea and see the khalasars travelling it. In a few weeks, eight other khals were challenged and lost their lives to the flames and the fangs of Drogon, giving Daenerys a total strength of 55 000 warriors. Only then Daenerys Targaryen came back to Meereen with her dragon.

Maybe Aerys's daughter had expected a triumphant return. Maybe she had foreseen her people needed help. One thing was sure however, she had not predicted one of her dragons being stolen and the remnants of one of the greatest fleet of the world lying at anchor before the city of Meereen. Despite the time between the battle and her arrival, the Freedmen of Meereen were still burning corpses (or feeding them to Rhaegal). It was definitely a less desolating picture than the one at the end of the great battle. But it was enough to crush any hopes of peace. And as the dawn set upon the Great Pyramid, Daenerys Targaryen swore she would have her revenge on the one who had taken her dragon. Even if she had to burn the world for it...


	49. The Debt is growing

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Iron Bank or Braavos.

Monarck: If you don't like it, it's your opinion but no one forces you to read it.

cristianronald278: Robb will die eventually like everyone else. He's after all human, and humans die, in battle or of old age (though the latter is not happening often in Westeros).

Daenerys can't control her dragons, but the author isn't aware of it, it isn't like she shouted the news from the top of the Meereen pyramids...

As for the Ironborn and the Dothraki, it's GRRM who created these two charming and peaceful cultures (heavy sarcasm). The numbers and the logistics are also all GRRM (I assume that if someone does an impossible thing in the books, then they can do it too in my story). Note that I could be wrong, but I would be pleasantly surprised if similar events don't happen similarly in the Winds of Winter...

raw666: Everyone save the immortal beings has to die sooner or later. Even dragons have and will die of old age.

X59: Victarion was never the brighter Ironborn having existed. He and his brother Euron are playing with forces completely out of their league. Euron doesn't care. Victarion is too idiot to realise it. Both brothers will not see each other again. Though the discussion would be no doubt extremely interesting...

Master of Dragons God: Thanks!

Guest: To pair Robb with Margaery would be very good for both parties, but unlikely to work as long as the Reach continues to change sides each time it's advantageous for them. Northern lords have a deep respect for the oaths they swear, a thing you can't tell a lot about the Tyrells.

Dagmer could have tried to make Victarion listen, but would he have succeeded? The Lord Captain is under the influence of a Red Priest, and so far every person who finds himself in such a situation does things very out of character. As for his attempts at dragon taming, there are going to be a lot of problems...

To bring down dragons, you need a shot in the eye or a very big specialised siege engine (like a scorpion bolt). The army of the slavers was a bit too busy with the battle to make sure the dragons died.

Matt Quinn: Hizdhar is so pathetic no one has bothered to deal with him. His fate is going to be left to Daenerys.

Dellaus: Everything is always possible in Westeros! Thank you for the review.

Darthas: Oh, it is not the entire strength of the Dothraki, not by far. It's just everything which in the area Daenerys explored. There are more barbarians elsewhere, the Dothraki Sea is huge...

Ojha:  I've never said the year in which Robb is going to die, haven't I?

And now another chapter where Westerosi propaganda is a bit biased against an Essossi Free City...

 **The Debt is growing**

 **The Iron bank will not have its due Part I**

 _"The Iron Bank will have its due."_ Common saying about the Iron Bank.

 _"Was that a threat, banker?"_ Asha Greyjoy, 300AC.

 _"Braavosi never jape about dragons. They are wise to so."_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

By the time King Robb Stark and King Stannis Baratheon marched respectively north and south in 300AC to fight the wildlings and the Targaryen loyalists, the Seven Kingdoms were in a state of economic ruin. With the total destruction of the capital in the Battle of the Four Armies, all the ledgers keeping count of the taxes, laws and debts had been lost forever. What remained of the financial system of Westeros was now dispersed between the possessions of King Stannis in the Stormlands, at Highgarden in the Reach in the hands of Lord Mace Tyrell and at Riverrun and Winterfell for the Kingdom of the North and the Trident. Asha Greyjoy, as new Lady of the Rock, had of course the millions of gold dragons formerly owned by House Lannister under her personal control. To say it made some parties angry was the understatement of the century. Among them, the Iron Bank was certainly the entity the most furious of all. Based in Braavos, this famous financial establishment was infamous for their words "The Iron Bank will have its due". In other words, any who subscribed a contract with this bank had better repay its loans in time, or suffer the consequences.

The consequences in question could really be awful. The wealth and the ruthlessness of the Iron Bank had allowed them more than once to hire thousands of sellswords, legions of assassins or bribe all the officials of an Essossi city to ruin a wealthy merchant or a prince who had believed himself above repaying his loans. In 300AC, the Iron Throne was perhaps the country which had cumulated the greatest amount of debts towards the bankers of Braavos: the sum waiting to be repaid had not yet reached three millions of gold dragons, but it was approaching it fast. Of course the Iron Bank was hardly the only one to ask the Iron Throne to repay its debts. The Faith of Seven, House Lannister and House Tyrell had loaned too rivers of gold to the king of Westeros when Robert I was still throwing tourneys after tourneys. But of these three parties, the first two were in tatters, and House Tyrell had a Greyjoy invasion to deal with first. The Iron Bank was alone to request the reimbursements to the surviving kings of Westeros. The welcome the emissaries of this prestigious institution received was frosty everywhere, which was somewhat understandable. First, winter was finally striking the Seven Kingdoms with snow and ice, which meant every lord and knight not involved directly in any fighting was busy buying food to survive this dreadful season. Learning your entire gold and silver supply had to be given to a bank which literally bathed in it according to the rumours was sure to irritate all the classes of the population, from the king to the lowest beggar. Secondly, apart from some merchants and ship masters in the Reach and Renly Baratheon supporters in the Stormlands, the debt of the Iron Throne had been essentially concentrated at King's Landing and its neighbouring castles in the Crownlands. It was the excesses of Robert I, Renly Baratheon, Petyr Baelish and House Lannister who had led the kingdom to economic ruin. By comparison, the Riverlands, the Vale, the North, the Iron Islands, the Westerlands and Dorne had almost no money to reimburse, and appreciated very moderately being told to pay for the expenses of others. Especially when the Iron Throne was a melted abomination and King's Landing was in ruins. The direct consequence of this was that everywhere the Braavosi emissaries went, they received the same message, which was "not now". The motives for these refusals were diverse and varied, but a large majority of the Noble Houses told the same one: there was no money left in their coffers to repay the debts. The depredations of the Lannisters and the monumental cost of the War of the Eight Kings had taken an awful cost in the treasury of every belligerent, not to mention some lands had never been big centres of trade and exchange before the conflict started.

This left the Iron Bank in a very difficult situation. In normal cases like this, the usual operation was to assassinate the leader opposing the repayment and threaten his successor the same thing was going to happen to him if he didn't cooperate. These methods, after all, had been extremely successful these last three centuries in Essos and elsewhere. However, the bankers and their emissaries failed to realise the circumstances were anything but normal, and didn't adapt their answers accordingly. Asking a Hightower to repay his debts after his city had just narrowly missed destruction at the hands of the Ironborn and threatening him when he refused to do so was not particularly intelligent. Nor was pointing the fact to Lord Wyman Manderly of White Harbor the fact that the Braavosi navy outnumbered him twenty to one in case hostilities were to break out. The emissary Tycho Nestoris, sent to White Harbor, was lucky the Northmen has such respect for guest laws and even received the authorisation to plead his cause to Winterfell once he produced written evidence of his claims(albeit under heavy Northern guard ). The others Braavosi were generally less fortunate: the mission to Oldtown saw every one of its members hanged without trial, while a few R'hllor worshippers took pleasure to burn alive the men who had had the temerity to threaten Princess Shireen Baratheon. The men sent to Gulltown were caught in the sack of the city and perished there (there were never seen again so this explanation was the most likely) and the emissary sent to Casterly Rock didn't survive ten seconds after having told Asha Greyjoy she would soon suffer an "unfortunate accident", being decapitated on the spot (and having his body offered to the Drowned God afterwards). Several assassinations attempts were made, but it was evident none of the legendary Faceless Men had been available on such a short notice, as the killers failed utterly in their tasks. Worse, the identity of the assassin's masters was evident and it contributed to poison the diplomatic waters between Westeros and Braavos in a definite manner.

The bank keyholders who sat in Braavos were not pleased by this series of reverses. Many of these wealthy aristocrats had expected a fortune of several thousand gold coins to cross back the Narrow Sea with their emissaries. Instead, the few men sent who came back alive were carrying letters of excuses or promises to pay when winter was over (which given the predictions of those in the know promised to be especially dire). Moreover, what should have been a minor economic defeat against the lords and kings and Westeros revealed itself to have bad implications for the future of the Iron Bank. In theory, the hundreds of thousands gold dragons loaned to Robert I Baratheon were really a minor sum compared to the gold, silver and precious materials they had at their disposition in their vaults. But it had been when the whole world wasn't burning in the flames of war. In Southern Essos, Volantis had gathered a massive fleet, which had severely curtailed the available hulls in the area to trade with. Victarion Greyjoy and his Iron fleet had also taken and sunk dozen of ships on their way to Meereen, disrupting further the Essossi trade. In the Narrow Sea, former Gulltown captains and the fleet of Salladhor Saan hunted the merchants arrogant enough to leave their harbours without the protection of warships. Not to mention hostilities had begun once again between Myr, Lys and Tyrosh, with sellsails and captains fighting in the waters surrounding the Sea of Myrth, the Stepstones and the Broken Arm. Even Pentos, supposed to be docile after the smashing defeats suffered at the hands of Braavos in the last centuries, was now finding its passion for war again, recruiting mercenaries and taking the first steps for the creation of a real army.

These were not actions which could be left unopposed. Not only the Iron Bank position as the main financial entity of this word was threatened (although there was no candidate right now to replace it), potential enemies to Braavos were coming out of the shadows, in the form of dragons in Slaver's Bay and magisters in Pentos. The problem was that the actual Sealord, named Ferrego Antaryon, was agonising and unable to take the decisions he had been elected for. The end of his life being a question of days, influential citizens started to put the formidable Braavosi fleet in condition to sail as soon as the Sealord's successor would be known. Men like Torm Fregar, Berrero Zathyne and Lorro Tevos were the favourites for victory, all claiming a quick and overwhelming military action was the immediate solution to Braavos current problems. Others aristocrats or common people, less well-known, still entered the electoral campaign by the dozens. Sacking Pentos and annexing its lands as Fregar told in his speeches was very popular. Making the former Crownlands of Westeros a client state as Zathyne wanted was not far behind. Alas, not one among the vast number of candidates remarked that, as they tried to rally the voters to become the most powerful man of the city, snow was falling on the Purple Harbour. Winter was finally here. And the Old Enemy had come once again, to wipe out the human realms...


	50. They are coming

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Wall or the Night's Watch.

cristianronald278: Robb has in fact already a lot of gold in his possession, as he raided a lot of Lannister mines plus took the ransom for Theon and many Western nobles. The problem right now is the lack of food in the rural areas has created a lot of inflation and food transports from Essos are slow to arrive.

Invading the Iron Islands is impossible for the North at the moment. The available forces are on their way to the Wall, which is a far more pressing threat.

raw666: Oh, don't count Braavos and the Iron Bank out of the equation yet. Despite the economic crisis, they remain the wealthiest city and the naval superpower of this world.

X59: Part of the problem is that this conflict has absolutely no military equivalent by its sheer level of destruction and change of winning sides. It's medieval times, so the emissaries were often demanding things taking their orders from completely outdated instructions. That and the author is a Westerosi who is not a friend of Braavos.

The Others will have a hierarchy, though humans will only be able to deduce a vague idea of it. It's not like you can discuss with a White Walker...

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for the review.

Revan3363: Thanks for following my story.

Matt Quinn: A bit of Westerosi propaganda here; the banker made an unfortunate comment about how the Drowned God and the debt were two different things. One Ironborn didn't like the remark, and the representative was slaughtered on the spot. Asha executed the culprit, but the deed was done...

Paul: Let's just say the Iron Bank representative at Oldtown may have been after the illegal actions of a certain Master of Coin. It's his actions and some underlings deciding to save their skins which led to his murder in a spontaneous riot. Similar things happened at Casterly Rock and Storm's End with Drowned God fanatics and R'hllor worshippers. Afterwards, history was rewritten to make the Westerosi looks good.

As for Braavos, the city is well-defended and is going to enter the conflict with their manpower completely intact. With a titanic fleet and professional assassins, their enemies aren't going to have a lot of fun...

And now the Wall to visit our best frozen threats...

 **They are coming**

 **The Wall Stands Part III**

 _"Do you want thousands of wildlings fighting to your side or thousands of wights trying to kill you?"_ Jon Snow, 300AC.

 _"They are coming. Prepare for the Long Night."_ General message sent by Maester Aemon to all the Houses of Westeros, 300AC.

 _"They come and they bring with them ice and death."_ Cotter Pyke's message sent to Castle Black, after the disaster of Hardhome.

 _"We will have to stop them here. It is at the Wall that the destiny of humanity will be decided."_ Lord Tyrion Lannister to King Robb Stark, 300AC.

The election of Qhorin Halfhand as Lord Commander had been a moment of hope for the Night's Watch and the Northmen defending the Wall against the Wildling horde. There was none of this feeling left when the second election to name a new Lord Commander began in 300AC. Usually, the logical decision for two elections so near in time would have been to nominate the best contenders of the previous one. Unfortunately, this was not possible. Qhorin himself, the Lord Commander, had perished in a duel of legend against Mance Rayder, but so had Donald Noye against the King of the Giants, Ramsay Snow at the teeth of the cannibals, Ser Endrew Tarth against a formidable Thenn warrior (making the main line of House Tarth really extinct) and many others knights and veterans of the Night's Watch. Janos Slynt, former commander of the Goldcloaks, had during the battle cowardly deserted his post in top of the Wall (despite the lack of danger so high in altitude) and hid himself in the upper levels of Castle Black where Maester Aemon himself found him the next morning. Slynt was executed by Robett Glover himself three days after the battle, his excuses being so pathetic no one managed to believe them.

Lacking a unified leader for Castle Black, the other two fortresses commander Cotter Pyke and Denys Malllister began their campaign to become Lord Commander. The commanders of Shadow Tower and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea cordially hated each other, making all attempts of a rapid election impossible. The 151 men of Shadow Tower voted for Denys Mallister. The 241 men of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea voted for Cotter Pyke. With only 752 black brothers, 501 votes were needed to win the election, and these two serious candidates were unable to convince enough men of Castle Black to follow them. To be fair to these two men, the garrison of Castle Black was unable to do anything as a coherent force. Jon Snow, illegitimate son of the defunct Lord Eddard Stark, had the support of most of the rangers and fighting men, having brilliantly served as the Lord Commander's second in the Battle of the Wall but was only the more popular commander of many, his young age been considered by many as too great a disadvantage. The steward Bowen Marsh had rallied to him most of the black stewards. Othell Yarwyck was followed by most of the builders. Furthermore, the rounds coming day after day convinced many new recruits coming from all Westeros to put their name in the vote. What no one had expected was the elections to be rapidly perturbed by an external factor. The morning of the fifteenth day of elections, a formidable mass of men, women and children emerged from the Haunted forest. The wildlings had come back again.

The eyes of the experienced watchmen with Myrish glasses in top of the Wall however noticed quickly this wildling group was no threat to them. If the wildlings following Mance Rayder had had the ferocity and the appearance of an army, these newcomers were a crowd of wounded and starved men, women and children, most having lost their weapons and their will to fight. Hunted by the White Walkers, with no resources and no other way to escape, the wildlings had come back to the place where their hopes had been shattered. As a weak sun illuminated the Wall, a lone giant advanced with a flag of parley. No Night's Watch commander being particularly eager to test if a giant had the honour to respect the customs of parley, it was Robett Glover and a group of his personal guard who emerged of the tunnels to talk. The Northmen were received by the wildling leadership, the "wildling's princess" Val and her lieutenant the famous Tormund "Giantsbane".

The negotiations were brief and to the point, Northmen and wildlings having little interest in the finest points of diplomacy. The wildling delegation freely admitted they were at the end of their road, and unless help came, there would be no tomorrow for them. The White Walkers could not be stopped. The weather was becoming incredibly cold, even for the inhabitants of the lands bordering the Shivering Sea. Val, Tormund and some 12 000 wildlings were ready to surrender, but only if the Northmen and the Night's Watch authorised them to travel further south. The barely-hidden threat being that while the 12 000 humans in front of them were absolutely no threat, nor were the thousands of defeated wildlings marching towards Hardhome, once the White Walkers would deal with them the issue was going to become significantly worse. Twenty or thirty thousand wildlings having barely the strength to stand and walk were never going to be a threat for the black brothers and the Northmen. Thirty thousand wights in service of the Others were a danger no matter how optimistic the perspective.

In a perfect world, the Night's Watch and the Northmen would have accepted to let pass the wildlings in order to have a better chance to fight the enemy which mattered. Unfortunately, the Wall in 300AC was far from a nice place. Robett Glover and most of the men having enough strategic sense recognised letting pass the wildlings survivors was the sane choice. On the other hand, that left a large number of men in the Night's Watch focused on hating their long-lasting human enemies and refusing to admit the Wall and the Watch had been created to defend from something far worse than cannibals. The issue of the truce between the wildlings divided the ranks of the bad brothers and the Northmen so badly it came to civil war. Learning Ser Denys Mallister, Jon Snow and Othell Yarwyck had the intention to form a temporary alliance with Val and Tormund's force, the Lord Steward Bowen Marsh, Ser Alliser Thorne and several other black brothers tried to eliminate them, judging these men had failed to uphold their vows (external influence was never proven). The move was stupid: even if this brutal removal had functioned, the thousand or so Glover and Northmen present would never had stayed idle while murderers and oath-breakers were among them. As it was, surprise was far from total and the conspirators only managed to kill Othell Yarwyck before being discovered and forced to defend their lives. Marsh, Thorne and their followers were encircled (numbering 50 in all), broken and massacred, then cut piece by piece and thrown off the Wall. It was one more betrayal and disaster the Night's Watch really didn't need in these dark hours, but it had happened and now the weight of the Northmen to defend the Wall was even more important, the black brothers having lost 78 of their numbers for 21 Northmen. The arrival of Lady Maege Mormont with 600 men at Shadow Tower and seven Manderly and Flint ships with 500 men at Eastwatch only accelerated the vision of the black brothers rapidly becoming irrelevant. The day after the mutiny of the Forsworn (as Marsh and his conspirators then were known) Ser Denys Mallister was elected 999th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. The gates of the tunnels were opened, and for the first time in centuries, wildlings were free to cross the fortification of Brandon the Builder. It had a price, of course. While part of the spearwives, the children and any men unable to fight departed to the south under the escort of a sizeable escort of Northmen, 4 000 wildlings under Val and Tormund stayed at the Wall to help defend it, the defenders reopening the castles of Oakenshield and Queensguard for these unexpected reinforcements. Cotter Pyke stayed Commander of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, while the ranger Blane (once Qhorin's lieutenant) was named as the new Commander of the Shadow Tower.

Several ships from White Harbor having arrived in the last days, an expeditionary force was rapidly launched to save the wildlings they could from the assaults of the Others and the climate. Needless to say, the Hardhome expedition was a complete fiasco. Storms of an intensity never seen before struck the ten ships of the fleet, delaying progress to what had been once the only true wildling city beyond the Wall. When Cotter Pyke and his second Jon Snow arrived to Hardhome, the wildlings were starving and cannibalism had already begun to spread in the habits of several tribes. Another complicating factor was also that the wildlings present there had too much endured at the hands of the Night's Watch to trust them again. After a first round of peace talks, only about seven to eight hundred men, women and children began to embark in the Manderly ships, while several thousand stayed stubbornly on the shores. Perhaps the tribes and their leaders hoped to receive a better deal from Cotter Pyke. Maybe it was just in the Free Folk to cling stubbornly to their convictions. Anyway, it was too late. As it had been feared, the White Walkers were not about to let the chance to multiply their army of undead without acting. The first echelon of wildlings was just taking refuge in the ships hulls when a monumental avalanche collapsed not four leagues from the biggest concentration of Free Folk concentrated at Hardhome. As hundreds of undead emerged from the snow and ice, it was clear it was not a natural phenomenon.

Panic spread like a lightning. While White Walkers raids had been a deadly common occurrence since the last year, it was the first time the Great Enemy launched its troops in a full day assault. The Free Folk stationed there were not ready for this horrific change in tactics. Neither was the Night's Watch. The rare fighting men and women were dispersed all over the vast plain of Hardhome, with only a core force of Thenns, archers and black brothers of about 300 men and women in the fort directing the evacuation towards the ships. Considering the rapport of strength, the battle was lost from the start. The Others had brought with them tens of thousands wights, outnumbering their living opponents by at least four-to-one. Worse, the inhuman beings of ice held the high ground over the cliffs, letting them choose where and when to launch the undead in a horrific avalanche, and the men and women fighting had nothing to oppose this nightmarish tactic. In less than two hours, the vast plain of Hardhome was a sinister butchery, awful warning of the intention the Others had towards humanity. No champion was able to stop the dead. Killing one wight was increasingly futile, as five others took his place in the next second. Even the few giants available were simply submerged by thousands of monsters from humanity darkest nightmares. The fort of Hardhome, defended by Cotter Pyke, Jon Snow and the Thenn force, was able to oppose some resistance for several minutes, until the White Walkers finished the Free Folk and raised them as wights. After that, the undead came again, not by thousands but by the tens of thousands. The wood and the ancient stone protecting the human defenders collapsed under this pressure, with White Walkers warriors leading the way in the numerous breaches.

For two of these ice warriors, it revealed itself a very bad idea as one was impaled on Jon Snow Valyrian blade Longclaw while the other came face to face with the direwolf Ghost. On this day, the Night's Watch learnt that the White Walkers were not invulnerable to the steel of Valyria and being torn apart by the jaws of an adult direwolf. That was the extent of the good news. While the death of two of its commanders paralysed magically hundreds of wights during several seconds, giving time for the defenders to evacuate and retreat, the battle was lost. The fort of Hardhome was submerged, half of its fighting force was lying dead and there were simply no reinforcements to help humanity. Cotter Pyke, Jon Snow, Edd Tolett, Pypar and Grenn were the last black brothers to leave the shore, pursued by a mass of animated corpses nothing seemed to stop. Nine black brothers, seven Manderly men and the rest of the wildlings remained behind, slaughtered without mercy. The Battle of Hardhome was over, ending in an overwhelming Other's victory. The last coherent force of the Free Folk was now gone, replaced by thousands of wights. Too many wildlings had fought there their last stand, Cotter Pyke's evacuation managing only to save a thousand and one hundred Free Folk plus the giant Wun Wun. The culture, the history and the lives of hundreds of tribes having lived since immemorial times were erased forever. The White Walkers had succeeded in less than five years to exterminate or force to flee every human being living Beyond-the-Wall. Now the path to the Wall was completely open to the legions pouring from the Land of Always Winter. Under vast and dark clouds of snow and ice, the army of the dead surged southwards. The Second Long Night had begun.


	51. The Viper and the Griffin

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Golden Company and the Reach.

raw666: To be honest, Westeros at peace is not a good place to live for most people, only the upper classes of society and even then there are exceptions. At war, this place becomes a real nightmare...

X59: Well, the Night's Watch hasn't really attracted intelligent men in these last years. Look at what happens in canon when they know the White Walkers are coming...

Robb is going to arrive before the first massive assault. We need a big battle after all! But the South is not going to be involved for a while. Not only the conflict there is not over, but the distances between them and the Wall are simply huge...

Revan3363: Thanks for following my story.

darthas: Oh, I never said the White Walkers have not their plans and objectives. It's just they won't tell the humans, and as a result most historians will be restricted to pure speculation. Their attempts to kill everything in their path (which includes animals) doesn't help.

Female White Walkers and other notable fighting units will appear, have no fear. There will be organisation, but for the humans it will be an army which will come to exterminate them. Pretty close to Doom when you think about it.

Thanks for the review!

Matt Quinn, Tim, Master of Dragons God, Guest: Thanks for the support!

Paul: Yes, Robett Glover didn't hesitate a lot when he learnt it was Slynt who had abandoned his post. Taking a part in Lord Stark's execution and then getting to a place where there's plenty of Northmen was not a chance for Janos.

Yarwyck's support, much like all those who supported Denys Mallister, comes from the fact there are more reliable survivors from the Fist of the First Men debacle with a few popular commanders. Qhorin is dead, but he and many survivors (including Jon Snow) have had time to spread the news and make sure the real enemy coming is not the wildlings. Karsi existed there, but her fate was similar to the one in the show. Her children survived.

The high positions of the Night's Watch will not be completely filled when the Black Lions arrive. The Northern and Wall chapter which will tell these events will be chapter 58, if all goes according to plan. The Weeper was not alas among the one killed at Hardhome. He's part of a minor group who think they still have a chance to survive by launching an assault on the Shadow Tower. Never mind the Others are not far behind.

And now the new chapter where the campaign in the South enters its decisive phase.

 **The Viper and the Griffin**

 **The Stag and the Dragon Part III**

 _"Now we know why the Golden Company didn't want him anymore in its ranks!"_ Prince Oberyn Martell, speaking of Jon Connington, 300AC.

 _"Insult my father once again, and I will carve a griffin on your face!"_ Nymeria Sand, 300AC.

 _"One more great victory for King Stannis! Who wants another cup of wine?"_ Ser Justin Massey, 300AC.

 _"The Golden Company was really a shadow of its predecessors."_ King Stannis Baratheon, after the Battle of Cider Hall, 300AC.

The eastern part of the invasion plan of Aegon VI Targaryen had not survived its initial planning. Instead of having caught the lands and the castles part of Stannis Baratheon's realm off-guard, it had been the Dornish and Golden Company land and naval forces which had received a beating against the Stormlords. With less than 9000 men in their surviving combined army, Jon Connington and Oberyn Martell had been forced to abandon their plans to conquer the Stormlands and retreat westwards in the Reach territory. Still, things had been far from desperate in the two commander's mind when the siege of Grandview was abandoned. The Reach lords were known to be hostile to the cause of King Stannis, and were no doubt going to rally behind the Targaryen cause to fight against the man carrying the emblem of the Stag and the Burning Heart. Except this scenario wasn't going to happen. The battle lost in the Kingswood by the bannersmen of the Tyrells was still far from common knowledge, and Oberyn Martell only caught wind of it when the Dornish-sellsword army was three days away from Grassy Vale. On the highest tower of the castle of House Meadows, floated the Massey and Baratheon banners. Grassy Vale was now the base of Ser Justin Massey's army.

In a pure strategic sense, Justin Massey had of course no chance to win a conventional battle against Jon Connington, not with a mix force of levies and heavy cavalry under his command. The pikes of the Golden Company and the Dornish, while diminished, were still a redoubtable force. As for the levies, receiving a basic military training in the last weeks, expecting them to go and win against veterans of multiple campaigns was really lacking any contact with reality. But it was Connington and the Martell soldiers who were in a dreadful situation. Their army was tired from the long march they had just done to arrive there. From the very beginning, the Targaryen loyalists had had no victory, unless someone was counting the massacres and the destruction the troops did in the Reach, the Marshes and the Stormlands while foraging. Expecting the soldiers to obey when given the order to storm the fortress in a single, straightforward assault, was an idiocy beyond words. It would not have prevented Jon Connington to do it and trigger a mutiny in the process, fortunately Oberyn Martell had a far more accurate sense of his men's mood than the former Lord of Griffin Roost.

There was also another strategic reason, far more sinister for the army currently sitting in front of the Blue Byrn. In the last days, the rear guard of the Dornish army had lost sight of Stannis Baratheon main force. Skirmishers of Massey and Stannis were present, but nowhere the hundreds of archers and cavalry the master of Storm's End had under arms could be seen. If it had been Renly Baratheon or Mace Tyrell in pursuit, the soldiers could have been confident their enemy had abandoned the pursuit. Not so with Stannis Baratheon, and every man in the combined force wondered where the hammer was going to fall next. In the end, both commanders managed to agree with each other long enough to bypass Grassy Vale and descend the river to Longtable. It was a miserable affair. Not only Massey raiders made a nuisance of themselves, but winter was finally there and the Dornish and the Essossi had in no occasion made any preparations for a war in cold conditions (and even if they did most of their supplies were at the end of the Sea of Dorne). Supplies were also running short, as no smallfolk family wanted to sell its food stocks as winter was only just beginning. Too predictably, the same kind of atrocities which had happened in the Stormlands happened in the Reach too.

The saving grace for the combined Targaryen army came at Longtable, where Lord Orton Merryweather and his household agreed without conditions to replenish the stocks of the hungry army and to swear allegiance to Aegon VI Targaryen. It gave a long-needed respite to the starved army, which by that point was numbering barely 7500 men, the rest lost to ambushes, diseases, infected wounds and of course desertion. A few days of rest with the relative safety of the walls of Longtable at their back did a lot of good to the men having survived so far. Alas, they couldn't stay here. While the forces of Stannis Baratheon were not in the area, the Massey skirmishers were in the east, rallying minor knights and smallfolk to their cause, a task made even easier by the fact Connington seemed to be fond of committing atrocities for the simple pleasure of it. From the north, a sizeable force under Ser Richard Horpe was descending the Mander from Bitterbridge, slowly but surely. The forces of Massey and Horpe combined were less than the strength of the Dornish, the Essossi and House Merryweather could put on the field, but they were definitely more mobile. Victory was definitely not certain, and losing even more men could only be a disaster for the cause of Aegon VI. Ravens coming from Highgarden and bringing dark tales of disaster in the name of Lord Tyrell and Aegon VI did little to boost the moral.

In these circumstances, it was not surprising the crisis of command which was still in everyone's mind came back with a vengeance. Oberyn Martell was not the less hot-blooded Dornishman in history, and Jon Connington suggestions (sounding more like orders and recriminations) that they had to abandon this front and rush to Aegon VI's help were the last straw for a Prince who had never tolerated the former Hand of the King anyway. Insults were spoken. Swords were drawn. Tempers ran hot. Jon Connington was almost eviscerated by the dagger of Oberyn's illegitimate daughter Nymeria Sand before being forced to issue some apologies. The unity of the army however, had been irredeemably shattered (assuming there was one in the first place). Connington had never been liked by the common Dornish soldier, being quite cold and scornful of anyone under him in the Westerosi social structure (which included nearly everyone in this army). Being a former Hand of the King of Aerys II the Mad, in a land where thousands of horrible rumours circulated about the Targaryen line, was simply the icing on the cake. The Golden Company had not helped, despising the lack of discipline and the customs of their Dornish counterparts. The following morning, about 3500 Golden Company sellswords left camp with the barges and rafts owned by Lord Merryweather to march to the relief of Highgarden, along with some 500 Merryweather men and Reach knights. About 4 000 Dornish under Oberyn Martell remained behind in Longtable.

It appeared rapidly the Red Viper's decision to fortify had been the correct one. Justin Massey and Richard Horpe had received order from their sovereign beforehand to avoid any confrontation in open ground and storming Longtable and its defences would have been exactly going against this command. Instead, the two knights rallied the knights and troops dispersed by Garlan Tyrell after the Battle of Bitterbridge. Prince Oberyn Martell now used skirmishes tactics and ambushes to exploit the weaknesses in the Stormlords ranks. Unfortunately for him, he didn't find one, and after fifteen days of progressive encirclement, Longtable was encircled from every direction. If the Dornish had had the Golden Company sellswords with them, it was likely a sally could have broken the besiegers, which included a large part of Reach levies and had not a very important numerical superiority. As it was, it never happened. Jon Connington did not under any circumstances thought about going back on his steps while his troops were transported from Longtable to Highgarden in large barges. It was an impressive spectacle to say the least: everything which floated on the Blue Byrn and the Mander around Longtable had been taken for the troops and their supplies. Advancing south, the succession of rafts and embarkations could be compared to a large snake seen from the sky. This progression was brutally interrupted at Cider Hall. Knowing Garlan Tyrell had taken the fortress from the Fossoways by Lord Orton Merryweather, Jon Connington had sent a few messengers for supplies but had not bothered to send scouts or debark a more sizeable force on the banks of the Mander. It was a bad idea, which was revealed as such when after the vanguard of barges had passed, the scorpions and ballista on the walls of Cider Hall, along with hundreds of incendiary arrows were unleashed on the vulnerable convoy of troops. At the top of the dungeon, the rose of House Tyrell fell, replaced by the Burning heart and the Stag of King Stannis Baratheon. The Golden Company had finally found the master of Storm's End army.

Unfortunately for Oberyn Martell and Jon Connington, King Stannis Baratheon had never pursued them to Grassy Vale, relying instead on small groups of messengers on horseback to order Justin Massey to delay them. The core force of the Stormlands had rushed towards Ashford, which had fallen after a pathetic resistance, and continued to Cider Hall where the Tyrell garrison had been slaughtered in a night attack. It had just been a matter of time afterwards to wait for the Targaryen loyalists to fall into the trap. The heavy infantry of the Golden Company (which was all what was left to Connington), was unable to manoeuvre on the barges and the rafts, was taken totally by surprise by this sudden reversal of fortune. A murderous rain of arrows was falling on them without warning, all the while siege engines which had previously been believed on their side were shooting them like on the training ground. The heavy armour of the sellswords protected them from the arrows, but nothing could save the barges from the fire or from a well-targeted rock dead on target. The men sworn to Aegon VI tried to retaliate, but in pure loss and less than an hour of fight saw the Mander turning red of their blood. There were officers quick enough to try to land their troops on the other bank, but this too had been thought of: soon enough the cavalry of the Stormlands under Ser Donnel Swann emerged from a nearby wood to slaughter them. The pikes of the Golden Company were of no utility left in the rafts as the panic spread and in the confusion there was not enough time to form a pike wall anyway.

Caught between the hammer of the cavalry and the anvil of Cider Hall, soldiers began to lay down their weapons, in spite of the shouts of some officers to fight on. The river ships were coming one by one under fire, and the slaughter was total. Jon Connington tried to rally his troops and launch them in a suicidal charge against the Baratheon mounted soldiers, but his men had had enough. While no one in the aftermath knew who had done the deed, the former lord of Griffin's Roost had his back shredded by a pike, which was definitely of Essossi origin. The rest of the force surrendered shortly after, including the Merryweather and various Reach troops who had accompanied them. This was the end of the Golden Company in what Baratheon historians named officially (and some might affirm ironically) the Sixth Blackfyre Rebellion in the years which would follow. The campaign of King Stannis Baratheon was far from over, as Oberyn Martell and his troops continued to resist at Longtable, though they had not the capacity to escape anymore. But as ravens from Highgarden and the Wall began to arrive calling for help, it became evident dealing with the Red Viper of Dorne was a lesser evil which could wait for another day...


	52. Release the Krakens

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own House Greyjoy, Tyrell, the families and their armies.

raw666: Yes, they will deal with Euron. Or Euron is going to deal with them, who know...

X59: The Golden Company has been totally destroyed. It will not forbid some men in the future to claim they are the "true" company, but for all intent and purposes, the company created by Aegor Rivers has ceased to exist.

As for Stannis, he has to ensure he has secured his left flank before going North. Nothing would be more imprudent than leaving the situation as it is in the South.

Thanks again for the kind words and the support.

Matt Quinn: Ideally, Stannis would like to do both at the same time. But with Euron next door, he will have to be taken care first.

Selyse is dead and Stannis is widowed (something which doesn't look to destroy him by the way).As for offering Margaery to Stannis, both would find severe objections to such an arrangement.

The Alagoano: Yep, Stannis is going to continue deeper into the Reach (though he has already passed the frontiers of this kingdom quite a time ago).

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for commenting on my story.

Paul: Denys Mallister got elected despite Pyke not voting for him. The two commanders really didn't like each other, and the attempted mutiny didn't chance that. Don't mistake me, Pyke was prompt to manifest his disgust at what Marsh and Thorne had done, but he still believed he would be a better commander than Denys.

Stannis was always a gifted commander, and while Jon Connington was not bad per se, he always was an arrogant and proud man who didn't like to listen the advice of others. Having Oberyn with him was pretty certain to end in disaster.

And now, the long-awaited offensive of Euron into the Reach...

 **Release the Krakens**

 **The Second Greyjoy Rebellion Part VII**

 _"The Seven are a bit too busy to hear your prayers, Tyrell. But don't look so worried, I'm sending you immediately rejoining them!"_ Euron III Greyjoy to Lord Mace Tyrell, Battle of the Poison Field, 300AC.

 _"I will conquer Westeros. And if I can't, then Westeros will perish with me."_ Euron III Greyjoy, 300AC.

 _"I will have all the time to rest after today. Before that, the Reach cavalry is going to charge a last time!"_ Lord Mace Tyrell, Battle of the Poison Field, 300AC.

 _"Now I see why the old grey beards of my Order tried to make magic extinct."_ Archmaester Marwyn, witnessing the Field of Poison, 307AC.

To say the War of the Eight Kings had not gone well for the Ironborn was a high understatement. The conquest of the North ordered by Balon Greyjoy had been a humiliating failure. When the first victories on the Westerlands were achieved, the death of the twice-crowned King completely stopped the for once successful tactics and put Euron III Greyjoy on the Seastone Chair, a man who had never cared about the people of the Islands and proceeded to show it by beginning a naval invasion of the Reach. After achieving bloody and costly victories at the Shield Islands and the Arbor, the reavers had suffered a massive reverse at Oldtown before being expulsed rapidly from the lands and islands sworn to House Redwyne.

The sad part is, it was evident with hindsight Euron III had planned exactly this outcome for his campaign. What had not been expected, however, was the thrall insurrection at home and Asha Greyjoy taking Casterly Rock from House Lannister. Suddenly, Ironborn having never faltered in their resolution to massacre everything in front of them wanted to go back to their lands defend their families and their keeps. Captains born on Harlaw and Pyke, and a lot of others, now looked at Asha Greyjoy in admiration for such a prestigious victory, further boosted by the liberation of Theon Greyjoy from his house arrest of Riverrun against an extravagant payment. The defection of Rodrik Harlaw on the eve of the reconquest of the Arbor by the Reach forces and Victarion Greyjoy sailing in Slaver's bay with the Iron Fleet just made the problem an insurmountable one. No matter the perspective, the Ironborn had lost. All their manpower reserves were gone. A not so minor part of their harbours and home infrastructure was torched or utterly destroyed. The islanders were now divided into several groups, each following a Greyjoy leader who had excellent reasons to dislike the others. Of Euron conquests from the entire war in the South, only the Shield Islands were still under Ironborn dominion, and the Reach fleet soon was going to move northwards with sailors and soldiers having blood in their eyes. At the Mander estuary, Lord Mace Tyrell was mustering a massive army to play his part in Operation Sea Rose. The fight to come was going to see the Ironborn fight their last battle at more than five against one.

The ugly reality was that Euron III Greyjoy, the dreaded Crow's Eye, was aware of it, but had utterly disregarded any option of retreat, tactical withdrawal or negotiations. The Crow's Eye had burst into laughter at the fall of Casterly Rock and publically insulted Erik Ironmaker at the news of every island falling to the thralls, proof enough his vision of things was not those of a sane man. The fight against the armies of the Tyrells was going to be to the death, and would finish with the vanquished side being slaughtered by the winner. No other option existed in the eyes of the pirate king. Euron III Greyjoy firmly intended to be the winner, of course. But with less than 200 intact longships and 6000 men under his personal command, any conventional war was out of the question. Fortunately for the reaver monarch, a solution existed. And the world was going to suffer from it for years.

In the Battle of Oldtown, a dedicated group of Euron followers had profited from the confusion to attack the Citadel of the Maesters and empty the vaults of priceless treasures (and slaughtering a significant part of the senior archmaesters and maesters present by the same occasion).Some of these objects were priceless in the monetary sense, for example rubies, emeralds and other precious stones. But the vast majority were inestimable because of their magic power.

Despite the lack of accurate report, reliable witnesses chronicles (the majority coming from Ser Harras Harlaw's crew ) having been stationed in the Shield Islands at one moment or another indicated many of these findings were of no value on a battlefield or so old the magic in them had completely dissipated in the centuries they had passed in the vaults. That still left many relics and books perfectly serviceable, which were now put in use for Euron grand plan. A not so insignificant number of Ironborn captains had had enough by that point of the dangerous behaviour of their king, and perhaps inspired by the departure of Rodrik Harlaw for Ten Towers, decided to confront Euron Greyjoy and to change his mind, by force if it needed to be. Ser Harras Harlaw and a few other trusted captains, less naive and seeing the way the wind was blowing, fled in the middle of the night to return to the Iron Islands. It was a wise decision, as the spontaneous uprising led by the popular captain Dagmer Cleftjaw was violently suppressed by the sword and the axe. Dagmer and those who had followed him were captured. They were going to rapidly wish they were dead.

Euron Greyjoy was now lacking time with the approach of the Reach fleet coming southwards, and had decided that in the end, quantity was better than quality for the short-term future. The blood of hundreds of Reach knights and smallfolk had already been poured to fuel the darkest of sorceries. Now Dagmer Cleftjaw and the rebels captains followed them on the altars. In the five days it took for Admiral Desmond Redwyne to arrive to the Shield Islands, thousands of persons were massacred to fuel the blood magic Euron needed to win. The list of abominations created on these five dark days would fill entire books, but the most infamous was undoubtedly the birth of the dragon the world would nickname Dreadwing in every language spoken by man. This was of course far from the only insult to the order of things which emerged under the winter's pale sun. Mutated warriors, their bodies a grotesque imitation of human bodies, were now marching. Half-dead seen like at Oldtown, only looking even more terrifying and bloodthirsty. Big, twisted crows reaching size and ferocity never seen before. The Shield Islands were now only a huge picture of the darkest things which could be used with magic power. The entire local population and the prisoners of the previous raids had been massacred. The earth was red and black from the unnatural acts done there.

The Reach navy had heard the rumours, but had dismissed them as gossip tales. While severely criticised in the decades after that, the truth was that with the Maesters Order refusing to tell what had been stolen, Admiral Desmond Redwyne had no idea the forces he and his men were going to face. Furthermore, the cousin of the defunct Lord Paxter had about 120 converted merchantmen, captured longships and war galleys under his command (despite the damage done at the Arbor, quite a few warships had been captured and repaired there), a fleet which should have been able to deal with whatever the Ironborn had left after being bloodied in every one of their confrontation. With the barges and the tens of thousands soldiers of Mace Tyrell providing the anvil and Ser Desmond's navy providing the hammer, the Shield Islands defenders were going to be caught from two directions and would suffer the same fate they had inflicted to their victims. Except it didn't happen like that.

The first sign that there was something strange going on was that no longship tried to intercept the Hightower and Redwyne ships before the Shield Islands. The second was that in spite of being leagues away, the Reach sailors could hear the screams of tortured people, their people, coming to their ears. The third was the true sea of blood and corpses they were sailing as the warships made their final approach towards Southshield. Then the horn sounded and the warnings became moot.

This was not a horn forged in blood, runes and magic with a dragon bone this time. No, in the depths of the Citadel, the Crow's Eye had found an artefact long thought lost to bind krakens to his will. The minor detail that the man blowing the horn bled to death in a matter of minutes in a horrible agony was not relevant when the opportunity presented itself to wipe out a significant portion of the Reach naval forces. A prisoner, whose name was forgotten in history, was forced to blow the horn. And the krakens, long-thought extinct, answered, attracted by the call of the horn and the quantity of corpses floating near Southshield.

The battle was lost for Admiral Desmond Redwyne before anything could be done. There were not that many krakens, truth to be told: reliable captains and officers would later estimate their numbers at less than twenty. But the psychological effect was simply devastating. The sailors of the South had prepared to fight an enemy having a human form: seeing a monster grab with its large tentacles a converted merchant's hull and sunk it in an instant was a terror they could never have prepared for. Arrows and spears lacked the strike power to penetrate the krakens skins and the siege engines had not been conceived to shoot at an underwater enemy. Panic reigned, the officers who were not veterans present aboard the ships were terrorised and unable to organise efficiently. The fleet was not a fleet anymore, just a large number of ships operating individually and moving the faster they could in the direction which guaranteed safety. Not managing to stop the naval rout, Admiral Desmond Redwyne, Lord Garlan Tyrell and their lieutenants Garth and Gunthor Hightower retreated southwards. About 36 ships had been lost, three-quarters of them with all hands, against 1 kraken dead and five severely wounded. The Reach navy was not destroyed (Oldtown could and would rebuild many warships), but dispersed and fleeing in fear, the first prong of Operation Sea Rose had been decisively shattered.

In the great scheme of things, this battle did not change anything for the Ironborn. While it appeared an extremely cheap way to defeat a fleet, the facts were much more sombre: the reavers had huge problems in manpower, and the number of prisoners still alive and available for the sacrifices required were nearing zero at an alarming rate. Desmond Redwyne would eventually regroup and come back with a much bigger fleet. The Ironborn would not be reinforced in the mean time. Moreover, control over the krakens had been far from absolute in the aftermath of the battle. About seven longships had been the target of the naval creatures when the Reach warships abandoned the battlefield and were sunk by the enraged krakens. The kraken horn was less and less efficient as time passed, being obviously not truly reliable to control more than one kraken at the same time.

This implied Euron Greyjoy had to act fast. Less than two days after what history would later name the Battle of the Krakens, the entire surviving Ironborn fleet in these waters sailed away from the Shield Islands. The men aboard were for the most part now utterly terrified of Euron Greyjoy and as a result no one dared voice a complaint against a plan which under the best of circumstances would have been insane. They were going to attack the army of Lord Mace Tyrell at the estuary of the Mander.

In tactical terms, the odds were not in the Ironborn's favour. Mace Tyrell had in the War of the Eight Kings revealed himself a pitiful general and most of his prominent lords and senior commanders were standing in the same league as him in terms of intelligence and arrogance. Still, the Lord of Highgarden had mustered an impressive host for Operation Sea Rose, even if the 35 000 men mustered had been gathered by leaving the other frontiers of the Reach with third-rate garrisons. On an open terrain, the large component of heavy cavalry would massacre the reavers and krakens were thoroughly useless on land. Mace Tyrell might have been a bit to prone to bluster (his comments on how he was going to retake the Rock from Asha Greyjoy after Euron's defeat have been widely reported and laughed at in the decades which followed), but his positions facing the Sunset Sea were truly the best he could have done in the interval between the fall of the Shield Islands and this moment.

Lord Mace Tyrell, on the other hand, had not only ignored the awful effects a magical strike could have on an unprepared army, but he had also failed to hide his headquarters and those of his senior lords and generals in the vast amount of tents raised by his thousands of troops. This was an unforgiveable error, as a cunning opponent could have used old-fashioned assassins to decapitate the Reach entire command structure in one attack. On a minor elevation, the massive tents of Tyrell, Rowan, Ambrose and other Noble Houses in bright and flashy colours were practically an invitation for the Ironborn.

When the few wizards left on Euron Greyjoy service unleashed a poisonous wind on this position, all hell broke loose. The wizards and the longships had hidden their approach in the mists of the early morning, and managed to get in position before a single sentinel sounded the alarm. The Battle of the Field of Poison, as it would be remembered afterwards, saw the massacre of thousands of the finest Reach cavalrymen by surprise. The magical cloud killed hundreds of men who had just emerged from sleep, and had no defence against this type of attack. Black and violet smoke rushed between the tents, and more than a few breaths in it were more than enough to begin coughing blood. A long agony between ten minutes and ten hours would then follow.

Like so often in the War of the Eight Kings where magic was used, the magic was really more impressive in shock and awe effect than in true tactical terms. In terms of casualties, the poison magic and the charge of the abominations in service of the Crow's Eye, including the giant ravens, killed less than five thousand soldiers all told on this day, all the while taking heavy losses facing the heavy infantry and the archers who had been left untouched by the magical attack.

But these five thousand dead were lords, knights, senior commanders and officers, who should have been giving orders and create discipline in the ranks. Mathis Rowan and Lord Arthur Ambrose had been killed in the first minutes of the attack, and Mace Tyrell was agonising from the poison. Command had fallen into the hands of Lord Branston Cuy, who was completely stunned and unable to make any rational decisions. To be fair, assaulted by an enemy straight from the Seven Hells and the entire command of the army dissolving into chaos in a matter of minutes, even a military genius like King Robb Stark would have likely been overwhelmed by the magnitude of the bad news arriving at the same time. Lord Cuy was not Robb Stark or Stannis Baratheon though, and his attempts to order his troops would be judged later as a comical affair, if one forgot the dreadful things happening at that very moment.

The magical shock troops of the Ironborn had opened a huge hole in the Tyrell defensive positions and now thousands of camp followers and untrained levies ran from the battlefield, generating an indescribable amount of confusion and chaos. The soldiers which had formed ranks were left to their own devices, standing by platoon rather than as a single force. The Reach forces were going to be defeated one by one by King Euron.

They were saved by Lord Mace Tyrell. The master of Highgarden had taken a lethal dose of the poison, but had managed to stand on his own and ignored the advice of his healers to go back to the battle. In his heart, it was likely Mace Tyrell already knew he was dying; his last orders to his Lord Orme were to recognise his son Willas as Lord Paramount of the Reach and to retreat to Highgarden in good order. But for the first time in his life, the courage of the man many had named "Lord Puff-fish" could not be mocked. One of his arms was unmoving, his face was livid, he was coughing black dust mixed with blood and the rest of his body was crippled from the poison secondary effects. Mace Tyrell still managed to don his full armour and mount his horse, providing a clear sign of hope to the thousands of Reach soldiers on the field of battle. Two thousand cavalrymen and four thousand infantry managed to gather around him, crippled and dying, but standing defiant. And then the music to sound the charge rang in a loud clamour.

While the affirmation which Euron Greyjoy shouted a pure scream of hate was not verified by any witness, the anecdote is probably true. The Ironborn attack had destroyed the cohesion of the Reach army, only for Mace Tyrell to upset the balance. In the slaughter which had been the Tyrell camp, the defenders were fighting with rage and for the first time of the battle, hope in their hearts.

Then the last charge of two thousand horses struck the advance of the Ironborn vanguard. The abomination, mutants and half-dead had already been severely diminished and now were brutally hammered by the energy a grown war horse at full gallop can deliver. The ugly ravens were falling from the skies, massacred by hundred of arrows. The half-dead and the abominations were torn apart by the spears of the cavalry and the swords of the infantry. The vanguard of the Ironborn didn't break. It simply ceased to exist.

The reavers and the captains who came behind were more resistant, but still took crippling losses. Lord Sparr, Dunstan Drumm and his son Donnel, Lord Netley, Daegon Shepherd and Lord Maron Volmark perished on their feet trying to stop the unplanned assault of the Reach cavalry. The Ironborn, already severely outnumbered, received more and more losses before Euron Greyjoy in person counterattacked with the last reserves and crushed the last cavalrymen. The tide definitely turned and about half the Reach army managed to retreat eastwards, out of reach of the Ironborn but also unable to attract the attention of the reavers on them, leaving the cavalry stand alone against the Ironborn waves.

Not that another assault was possible. No one wanted to be near Euron Greyjoy in this battle anyway. Donning an armour as black as night, the Crow's Eye was nearly unstoppable on this day. The swords, pikes, spears, arrows and axes were breaking against his armour, leaving him unscathed without a dent on his protections. Whispers and rumours told this plate had been once worn by the Night's King of the dreaded Others, and that no mortal weapon could hurt the person wearing it. Not that it was important in the end. The Reach cavalry had shot its bolt, and less than a dozen knights were still alive, protecting their liege lord Mace Tyrell. Euron Greyjoy and his troops charged at this last resistance, butchering them without any mercy. Mace Tyrell died his sword breaking against the impenetrable armour of the King of Crows.

The Battle of the Field of Poison was over, and the Reach has suffered a dreadful defeat, losing between seven and nine thousand men, mostly dead as no sides offered quarter. That was not to say Euron Greyjoy had accomplished all his objectives. The road of Highgarden was opened, but the army of the Reach was still a threat and could crush him once a commander regrouped the thousands soldiers running away from the battlefield. The offensive to Highgarden had to begin the next day, else the Ironborn were going to lose. In fact, it was already too late. The banners of a red dragon on a black field were floating over the towers of Highgarden while the battle was fought. The forces of Stannis were descending the Mander at a rapid pace. The War of the Eight Kings was going to find its spectacular end under the walls of Highgarden...


	53. The Spider and the Mockingbird

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Varys or Littlefinger, fortunately.

raw666: The War of the Eight Kings is almost over, indeed. Nevertheless, the Battle for the fate of the world is just about to begin...

X59: No, the dragon Dreadwing didn't participate in the battle, Euron keeping it as a strategic magical reserve. The Battle of Highgarden will be a small arc, with two chapters for the prelude (which begins...now), two chapters for the battle itself and one chapter for the aftermath. Though this chapters won't be exactly in direct succession of each other.

Matt Quinn: Yes, I decided to offer Mace Tyrell a hero death. So ironic when you know the character. As for the dragon banner, you will have to read this chapter.

The Alagoano: Yes, Euron has really become the big villain for the Reach. As for the kings, well, there are three on their way...

Fuser: Thanks for the comment and the support. It's true we're losing a bit of quality with this format, but alas, no method of writing is perfect...

Master of Dragons God: Thanks!

Guest(s): A great thank you for the kind words. And yes, there is definitely Lord of the Rings references in here, just for the awesomeness of it.

The Reach has taken a beating, but there are far from the worst screwed Westerosi faction. This honour belongs to the Westerlands and soon, to the Iron Islands. Most of the South hinterlands are completely untouched by war after all.

Paul: The maesters who survived Euron's attack will not be handed to Bolton or Hoat, no. That said, their fate is not going to be very pleasant either.

Andrik the Unsmiling survived the Field of Poison and is still with Euron's army. Nute the Barber was among the men who followed Cleftjaw and were sacrificed to fuel the magic Euron needed to win. Denys is with Euron's army too, and he has managed to save Red Rain from the time being. Lucas Codd and the Red Oarsman are still alive, but the majority of House Orkwood of Orkmont perished at Oldtown. The end is definitely in sight for the Ironborn in the Crow's Eye army...

And now let's see how the campaign of Aegon VI Targaryen unfolds...

 **The Spider and the Mockingbird**

 **Marching through the Reach Part I**

 _"Despite the best efforts of every loyal lord and soldier, the war situation has not developed necessary to the Reach's advantage."_ Lord Willas Tyrell, 302AC.

 _"Forgive me, my lord. But I believe we need to talk."_ Lord Varys to Lord Petyr Baelish, 300AC.

 _"Inform King Stannis Lord Peake has proven to be the proud heir of every Lord of Starpike having ruled this castle over the last centuries."_ Lord Rolland Caron, 300AC.

While the Golden Company and Lord Jon Connington sailed to their deaths in the Dornish Sea, the Stormlands and the Reach, Aegon VI Targaryen had begun his own offensive. The Targaryen claimant had with him 14 000 men, mostly Dornish, and had planned to attack the Reach by way of the Prince's Pass. Usually, an attack of this magnitude could have easily been beaten back by the Marcher Lords sworn to Highgarden and Storm's End. But with the Golden Company and Oberyn Martell forces attacking the Stormlands, King Stannis Baratheon was not in any measure to send any reinforcements in time, leaving the meagre detachments under the new Lord of Nightsong Rolland Caron fend for themselves. As for the Reach part of the frontier, it was even more badly defended, Lord Mace Tyrell being totally focused on the Ironborn threat to the detriment of anything else. To deepen the injury, many famous fighters, knights and lords of the Marches had perished in the War of the Eight Kings so far with significant parts of their households. Lord Bryce Caron and Lord Randyll Tarly were the prime examples of what price the Marcher lords had paid in this conflict.

That did not mean the fortresses of this area were easy prey. Hostilities, raids and skirmishes between the Reach, the Stormlands and Dorne had been common events before and after Aegon the Conqueror united Westeros, only decreasing in intensity when Dorne joined the realm during the reign of Daeron II. In turn, it meant fortresses like Nightsong were easy to defend and able to bleed an army by the time reinforcements arrived. In this particular case, there were no reinforcements, but the initial ambushes made by Lord Rolland Caron were brutal enough. The soldiers sworn to House Caron, while massively outnumbered (later estimations would estimate a disadvantage of ten to one ) were on their home ground, and attacked in the night on a terrain they knew very well, retreating after the fact only to start again the day after. The Dornish soldiers didn't appreciate at all being on the receiver side from a tactic they had created and elevated to the rank of art. Aegon VI was still ready to storm Nightsong in a frontal assault; a proposition which still makes maesters and strategic students cringe in pain when they calculate the cost in blood it would have cost. Fortunately for him, his Lord of Whisperers Varys and his wife Arianne Martell dissuaded him from this bloody option, with Varys proposing an alternative. While Nightsong was obviously the key of the Prince's Pass and the best way to assault the Reach, they were other passes, less guarded and with lords having never bent the knee to Stannis Baratheon after the death of King Renly.

The plan of Varys was rather simple: use his network of agents and spies to contact Lord Titus Peake of Starpike and Lord Luthor Vyrwel of Dark Dell and convince these two Houses to support Aegon VI's cause. House Peake and Vyrwel didn't have easy paths to cross the Dornish Marches, but avoiding a potential slaughter at Nightsong was far more decisive in the heads of the senior commanders. The only issue many lords and knights had with this plan, though it was only whispered in low voices around the fires, was the curious coincidence Lord Varys of all people had contacts with House Peake. The lords of Starpike had been well-known in Reach history for their long struggle and feud against House Manderly, but also more recently to have been enthusiast supporters of the Blackfyres each time a descendant of Daemon Blackfyre was crowned and invaded Westeros. Maekar I Targaryen had perished under the walls of Starpike to crush one of their rebellions, and the reputation of the Peakes was well-established as backstabbers and treacherous conspirators. The actual lord, Titus Peake, had continued the infamous tradition of treason by marrying Margot Lannister (of a minor branch of House Lannister of Casterly Rock ), hiring sellswords to pass as bandits in order to make sure several minor knights fell in tragic and unfortunate hunt accidents and sending far less taxes to Highgarden than what his oaths required. All before Westeros exploded into civil war. After the declaration of hostilities, Lord Peake had promptly declared for King Renly, only to flee rapidly from Bitterbridge with his household guards when news of the Battle of Storm's End arrived. Since then, the military strength of House Peake had stayed at home, passing its time enlarging the lands owned by Starpike by intimidating and terrorising the smallfolk population and the Houses which had left too few of their soldiers behind when the call for arms was sounded.

In these conditions, it is somewhat understandable why Lord Titus Peake did not hesitate long before agreeing to betray his Tyrell overlords and swearing his (dubious) allegiance to Aegon VI Targaryen, exchanging his allegiance against the ownership of the two former Peake castles of Dustonbury and Whitegrove. House Vyrwel took more time (and according to the rumours circulating afterwards, a huge promised sum in gold dragons) but the initiative of Varys functioned: the Dornish army of Aegon VI Targaryen was able to emerge unscathed into the Reach. Lord Rolland Caron and his skirmishers, lacking severely in numbers, launched small raids on the lands of House Peake and its vassals without managing to catch the main force again. This alliance concluded by the Master of Whisperers wasn't only purely for the passage of the army; 2800 men also joined Aegon's cause to claim the throne of Westeros. But before dealing with Highgarden, there was a last threat to erase to secure the flanks. They had to take Horn Hill.

If Lord Randyll Tarly had been alive, besieging the Tarly ancestral home would have been pointless, as their lord had been renowned as a warrior without equal thorough the Reach and had between 4000 and 5000 men trained to a standard few troops in Westeros had. But now he was dead, leaving only his son Dickon in command, and of the 4500 men he went to war with, less than three hundred came back with the Valyrian sword Heartsbane, giving Horn Hill a force under 500 men able to fight. Dickon Tarly could have been a formidable warrior once he grew into adulthood, but when Aegon VI encircled Horn Hill the Tarly heir was barely thirteen. Lord Dickon had also been trained by his father on military matters, but others aspects of his education like politics or negotiations had been wilfully neglected. If his elder brother Sam had not been sent to the Night's Watch, the history of House Tarly would have been largely different (and the one of the Wall too, and not for the better ), but as it was, Lord Dickon Tarly refused to surrender and dared Aegon VI to storm the walls of Horn Hill.

That was not a challenge which was particularly intelligent to make. Horn Hill was a powerful fortress, that much was true, but it was not one in the same league as Nightsong or Blackhaven, have to bleed an important force if fully manned, but not able to stop a massive army. And most of the Tarly troops had been lost at Bronzegate and the First Battle of King's Landing, leaving Horn Hill defenders outnumbered about forty to one. These were not the kind of odds which could be beaten without some kind of unconventional advantage. In this cold morning of 300AC with grey clouds hiding the sun, Aegon VI holding the royal Valyrian sword Blackfyre in his hands and ordering the assault to begin was the only surprise of the day. The rest was a slaughter for the garrison of Horn Hill, which fought bravely for more than four hours before being forced to abandon the walls under a torrent of arrows and ladders coming from every direction. An improvised ram broke the main gate, and everything was over. Dickon Tarly, Lord of Horn Hill for less than a year, had fallen from the walls with six arrows shredding him and the rest of the surviving soldiers surrendered once the doors were breached. Melessa Tarly born Florent and her three daughters were captured, and Aegon VI could enter triumphant the captured keep. To further boost the morale of the Targaryen forces, it was announced that very night Queen Arianne Martell was pregnant. Future looked bright and shiny for the Eighth King having been crowned in the current Westerosi civil war.

Northwards, the members of House Tyrell didn't share at all this opinion. With Loras Tyrell prisoner of King Stannis Baratheon, Lord Mace Tyrell playing soldier for Operation Sea Rose and Lord Garlan commanding the land and naval forces appointed to reconquer the Arbor and the Shield Islands, governance of Highgarden fell to Willas Tyrell, Mace's eldest son, Olenna Tyrell, Mace's mother and Margaery Tyrell, Mace's last child and only daughter. Far from confirming the boasts and loud bluster of the current Lord of House Tyrell, the three rulers of the Reach realised how deeply perilous the position of the Reach had truly become. Aegon VI was far from the only one having invaded their lands: now, Stannis Baratheon and his subordinates had torn apart the eastern defences and numerous minor Houses had already changed sides. Westwards, there was of course the Ironborn threat, although it seemed diminished after the Battle of Oldtown. Northwards, bands of bandits preyed upon the small and undefended castles of the Northern Marches. And internally, there was still another threat, one carrying the name of Littlefinger.

Originally sent to the Reach by Queen-Regent Cersei and Acting-Hand Tyrion Lannister, the former Master of Coin Petyr Baelish had seen his orders change a lot of in the months which followed. With the death of King Joffrey, command had come from Lord Tywin Lannister to secure a marriage between King Tommen Baratheon and Lady Margaery and to secure the vast armies of the Reach for the Lannister cause. It obviously failed. With Ser Loras prisoner and despite Mace Tyrell grand proclamations, few persons at Highgarden were eager to join an alliance with the Lannisters. Not only because the Lions would never tolerate anyone but themselves in the places of power, but also because losing battles after battles in the Riverlands and the Westerlands was hardly convincing anyone the final victory was in the Lannisters grasp. The Battle of the Four Armies confirmed it in the most exemplar manner. After the total annihilation of Tywin Lannister and the core of his military forces, the status of Petyr Baelish passed from diplomat to "honoured guest", which in other circumstances could have been translated to "hostage" or "prisoner". Of course, most prisoners hadn't raided the treasury of the capital or put in place a culture of corruption defying imagination in the Crownlands and the Vale for the last decade. The sheer extent of his economical crimes are still unknown to this day, but Lord Petyr Baelish was in 300AC a very wealthy man, and his resources definitely shouldn't have authorised him this way of life, nor attempting to bribe his way and pay about a third of Highgarden smallfolk and servants as informers and employees.

This gilded age did not last, to the bad luck of the man many nicknamed Littlefinger. While Lady Olenna and her co-rulers were happy to let Lord Baelish have his illusion of power (many of his informants were reporting everything to their Tyrells immediately after the fact), the Tyrell military situation continued to worsen. King Stannis Baratheon was now at Cider Hall, and dangerously close to Littlefinger's current location. The Vale, where Baelish had a lot of investment, was now largely controlled by Lord Yohn Royce and his allies, with Gulltown and its sources of income lost to the man who had been controllers of customs in that city. Technically named Lord of Harrenhal and the Trident by King Tommen Baratheon, Lord Petyr Baelish was in reality seeing most his fortune escape away really quickly, all the while the castles he was supposedly master were given to others. Baelish Keep in the Fingers opened its doors to Ser Harlan Hunter the same day Euron Greyjoy beat back the naval assault on the Shield Islands with krakens, and Harrenhal had been granted to Aenys Frey by King Robb Stark.

Accordingly, the person many suspected to have played a critical part in the change of the Goldcloaks allegiance at the beginning of the war decided to leave Highgarden before someone decided to offer him as a proof of good will to King Stannis. In the darkness, Petyr Baelish left the Tyrell fortress with a small group of sellswords and former Goldcloaks he had made sure they were personally loyal to him. On horse, the former Master of Coin rushed south, hoping to be granted an important post again at the court of a new monarch. He was not the only one fleeing in that direction. Euron Greyjoy had just the day before inflicted a massive defeat of the Reach armies on the Field of Poison. Now, to the consternation of the new Lord Willas Tyrell and his grandmother and sister, the most beautiful castle of the Reach was going to be the target of three converging forces, none of them looking friendly to the Rose and their loyalist vassals. The only question was now who would arrive first to demand their submission...


	54. The Gates of Highgarden

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Highgarden or a dragon.

raw666: Baelish's fate is discussed in this chapter. In this story or in the books, his chance will run out sooner or later...

X59: There are indeed 'hints' which will show a lot of credence to the Blackfyre theory. Alas, without a confession from Varys, these are only hints and speculation. The sword in itself does not mean anything after all. After the Ninepenny King's War, anyone could have had the opportunity to grab Blackfyre and ran with it.

nappus: Euron couldn't grow an adult dragon on his ship, you're absolutely correct. But a baby dragon? With a crew which members have all seen their tongue cut? The secret could have held. Then, once the dragon is becoming too massive, leave him on the Shield Islands while you send your Ironborn in attacks against the Arbor and Oldtown. And yes, the growth of the dragon was accelerated. By human sacrifices for dark magic and for food...

Matt Quinn: Whatever Littlefinger was doing while he was Master of Coin, he was certainly not doing his job. When Tyrion became the new treasurer, it becomes limpid Baelish had done a lot of things which were economically ruinous at best. As for the question who between Robert or Littlefinger is the most responsible, the answer is undoubtedly Robert, because it was his job to ensure the Small Council worked in the best interests of the realm.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for the support.

Paul: No, Euron won't put his hands on Littlefinger. It's Aegon and Varys who will.

The Tarly women will survive, they have too much value alive right now for any claims to Horn Hill (and to several other keeps given the awful losses in the nobility).

As for the krakens, the Reach navy managed to kill one by shooting hundreds of arrows at one and then a galley ramming it at full speed. Given that the ship in question sank afterwards with the kraken, the sailors are regarding it as a last recourse option.

 **The Gates of Highgarden**

 **Marching Through the Reach Part II**

 _"Surrender and I will not feed you to Dreadwing."_ King Euron Greyjoy to the defenders of the Dunn Fort, 300AC.

 _"The Iron Bank will have its due, Lord Petyr Baelish."_ Aegon VI Targaryen, 300AC.

 _"If you have a better idea to strike down a dragon, I'm all ears!"_ Lord Willas Tyrell, 300AC.

When Lord Petyr Baelish had bribed some Tyrell sentinels to get out of Highgarden, his urgency to get out of the Tyrell citadel had been in extreme urgency, in his haste to leave the beautiful castle before King Stannis Baratheon or King Euron III Greyjoy arrived to deal with him. But in this haste, the former Master of Coin having served King Robert had passed relatively few moments to think what he personally could bring to the cause of Aegon VI Targaryen.

That was the only explanation which made sense anyway, given the obvious presence of Varys, Master of Whisperers. If there was a man who had the best idea and the proofs of Lord Petyr Baelish economic and political machinations, it was the eunuch who served Aegon VI like he had served two decades ago Aerys II. Varys presence being everything but a secret in the Targaryen-Dornish army, the interest of Petyr Baelish would have been to avoid this army and continue to Oldtown, where there at least the authorities hadn't orders to imprison him should he fell in their hands. The last thing Petyr Baelish should have done, though it may be arguing from hindsight, was asking for a formal audience with Aegon VI with five sellswords for sole personal guard.

This time the chance was definitely against Littlefinger. Not only Lord Varys was present with Aegon VI, but an emissary of the Iron Bank was also conversing with the King. The banker, through lacking any formal proof that Petyr Baelish was involved in the murder of several of their representatives or the manipulation of the pre-war debts, was prompt to ask for Baelish's life as part of the ongoing negotiations between the Targaryen claimant and the Iron Bank. The support of the Braavosi bank and a slight reduction of the monumental Westerosi debt were far more enough to release Littlefinger in the Braavosi custody. The career of Lord Petyr Baelish was at an end, and on this night the former Master of Coin disappeared from the pages of Westerosi history. It would not be until two decades later that a Stormlands knight, hired by Storm's End to find back the trace of some missed funds, would find the tortured skeleton of Petyr Baelish in an abandoned mine of the Red Mountains formerly belonging to House Manwoody of Kingsgrave, only recognisable by the chain of Master of Coin which had been left on his corpse after the vultures had finished with him.

This escape was rapidly forgotten at Highgarden. With three armies in approach, the new lord Willas Tyrell had far more worrying preoccupations than dealing with a missing crook. If a fact had been made clear on the Field of Poison to the men who were enough lucky or competent enough to survive, it was that Euron III was a danger for the Reach and the rest of humanity. The king of the Iron Islands had unleashed forces the chivalry of the South had never imagined in their darkest nightmares, and no one could miss the gruesome fate which had happened to those naive enough to surrender to the Ironborn.

This was going to be a fight to the death, but not every Reach soldier having survived the Field of Poison regrouped at the capital of the Reach to form the resistance to the Ironborn invader. Many knights, smallfolk, camp followers or men-at-arms, far from having been encouraged by Mace Tyrell's epic charge, returned home, convinced any fight against the King of Crows was lost before the start. Lord Willas Tyrell had still about between eighteen and twenty thousand men under his personal command, but no more vassals would come to reinforce in time House Tyrell. The reserves of the Reach heart were at last finding their limits, and those who had still manpower, like House Hightower and the territories around the Honeywine or the Northern Marches were not going to be able to reinforce the existing armies in time. For better or for worse, many of the Tyrell hopes now remained with the two other armies approaching from the south and the east. In the mean time, Lord Willas sent a small force of mounted bowmen to slow down and harass the forces of the Ironborn.

The troops of the Iron Islands which were still alive had not really needed this to have problems. For all King Euron's satisfaction to have killed the lord of Highgarden and brutally ravaged the ranks of the Reach nobility, the reavers, sellswords and pirates who had charged on the Field of Poison had suffered casualties any sane commander would have considered insane, crippling, extremely high or all of the above. In spite of the abuse of magical monstrosities and abominations, poison clouds and gigantic crows, the Ironborn were not in any position to exploit immediately their victories. A Reach captain whose name was lost in the disaster had managed to order the sinking of several barges in the middle of the Mander before the defeat was complete, forbidding the use of the main Reach river in the next days to the reavers longships.

The forts of House Dunn and House Graves, both being relatively close to the battlefield, had also not surrendered and the Crow's Eye had to use for the first time the dragon Dreadwing to destroy the 600 men or so to destroy them, proof his manpower and the numerous of magical surprises in his possession were gone.

Of course, it was still an awful strike to the moral of anyone sworn to the Tyrells having the opportunity to see the inferno and live to tell the tale. The column of smoke was seen from hundreds leagues and reports from the Field of Fire had been spread enough from three hundred years ago to give an idea of what had happened. The screams of the dying, burning and devoured by Dreadwing, unleashed a wave of panic in everyone nearby, including the reavers. Dreadwing was younger and smaller than Drogon, but not that much, King Euron and his warlocks having used odious wizardry, blood and black magic, as well as feeding him thousands of humans corpses (with sometimes the person being still alive when fed to the dragon ) to have the fire-breathing reptile big enough to take the battlefield in time.

The advantages of having a dragon to exterminate your enemies were massive, but fortunately for this world, King Euron III had miscalculated. Dreadwing was bigger than it should have naturally been in 300AC, but the dragon was completely uncontrollable without a dragon horn (one incidentally having been recuperated in the maesters vaults ), forcing the Crow's Eye to use his last slaves to sound it (and die) to ensure Dreadwing did not massacre them after dealing with House Graves and House Dunn. Even so, the black and blue reptile had to be kept in chains all the time, drugged with magical potions and fed at closer and closer intervals to keep it in a lethargic state. Even then, Dreadwing was a vicious beast able to feint somnolence only to grab one human nearby when it had his back turned. King Euron III decided to name it Dreadwing at this moment of the campaign, though the rest of the Ironborn had less flattering nicknames, like "Euron's Folly", "Young and Voracious", "Hungry Death" or the "Vicious Beast", whispered in secret when they were sure the King of Crows and his fanatic confidents were not able to hear it. The terror they felt towards their insane monarch was too huge to contemplate the thought of rebellion now.

The Ironborn being too tired to advance westwards and Dreadwing being particularly uncooperative with his trainers desires, Euron's offensive stalled (the mounted archers of Willas Tyrell were a nuisance too ), allowing King Aegon VI to reach Highgarden first with an advance of three days before the first reavers. King Stannis Baratheon, needing to deal with the aftermath of the battle at Cider Hall and the significant damage done to the barges and transports need to transport him and his army down river, was even further behind.

Yet the arrival of the silver-haired King, his beautiful Dornish wife and their 23 000 soldiers failed utterly to restore the Faith of the Reach defenders. In the distance, Castle Oldflowers, last defence of the Western Reach before the Tyrell citadel, was consuming itself in a gigantic funeral pyre. Having an army in reinforcement was well and good, but what good was it against a madman having a dragon at his command? The Tyrell knights and their bannersmen were courageous, but bravery was useless against the advantage conferred by a fire-breathing and flying beast. Lord Willas Tyrell was building ballista, trebuchets and scorpions by the dozens to make the ramparts a wall of death and steel, but time was lacking. Euron III Greyjoy had unveiled his ultimate weapon with too little warning.

It was perhaps unsurprising in these circumstances the Reach and Dorne leadership came to blows in the strategies and tactics to counter the Ironborn. Aegon the Conqueror and his Targaryen descendants ruling Westeros had not diminished the hostility between the two kingdoms, and this distrust was now emphasized by the leadership on both sides. Lord Willas Tyrell, thanks to a bad joust with Oberyn Martell several years ago, was crippled and had developed his skills as a strategist, looking more like a Stannis Baratheon or a Tywin Lannister than a Robb Stark. With his grandmother Olenna and his sister Margaery at his side, the new Lord Tyrell had established a solid strategy to deal with the pirates (although not with the dragons ), with tactics heavily grounded on his knowledge of logistics and the terrain to defend.

By comparison, King Aegon VI was a more charismatic and hand-to-hand sort of leader, a trait supported and encouraged by the army of Dornish soldiers he had at his sides. Most of his subordinate commanders had as little experience of a massive battle as their sovereign: the Dornish force sent to war during Robert's Rebellion had been wiped out at the Trident and its nobles massacred. Hiding behind the walls of a fortress was not understandable to the Targaryen claimant, at least emotionally speaking.

The issue of Lord Willas refusing to swear allegiance to Aegon VI, on the motive his brother Loras was still prisoner of King Stannis at Storm's End, poisoned the waters of diplomacy in a definite manner before the first sword had been drawn. With the abject failure of the Stormlands campaign, neither King Aegon VI nor Queen Arianne Martell had any means to make sure the Knight of Flowers wouldn't pay for the oaths sworn by his siblings. Assaulting again the Stormlands in winter, when there was no army ready to do so and King Stannis present at Cider Hall, was no more than a fantasy for the bards. Behind closed doors, there were rumours in the aftermath of the War of the Eight Kings that Aegon VI had proposed to marry Margaery Tyrell as second wife. If so, it manifestly wasn't accepted (through maesters and historians of our time shivers at what the defunct Mace Tyrell would have answered to this proposal), and the divisions between the Reach and Dorne stayed insurmountable.

In a sad way, it didn't matter a lot. As a council of the two armies' nobles was happening, a column of fire erupted from nowhere and started to burn the woods guarding by their very presence the flanks of the citadel, followed by an enormous roar so powerful it shook everything in the vicinity. Dreadwing was here, and for all their preparations, King Aegon VI Targaryen and Lord Willas Tyrell found themselves forced to offer battle where the Crow's Eye had decided to attack. At the gates of Highgarden...


	55. A Light in the Darkness

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own House Greyjoy or the Ironborn.

X59: Yes, Littlefinger plans came completely apart, forcing him to do a bet he really shouldn't have taken.

For the moment, the deal between Aegon and the banker is mainly a financial and an economic one, with the possibility for more (including troops) if he wins more on the battlefield.

Matt Quinn: Jeyne Poole found the opportunity to escape in the chaos of the Battle of the Four Armies and managed to escape the city in time. Afterwards, she was recognised by several Northern soldiers and is going back to Winterfell with Sansa. Her experience so far with the South has not been pleasant, but she will be spared the fate of marrying a Bolton in this story.

As for the battle, no Euron isn't going to come unscathed from it...

Master of Dragons God, Revan3363, and raw666: Thanks for your reviews and commenting on my story.

Paul: The fate of the Tyrell and Dornish noblewomen will be revealed in the aftermath of the battle. Though they are definitely risking less than the soldiers on the battlefield. Fighting a dragon and a mad Ironborn are hardly ways to have a long life.

Littlefinger's move was one of desperation, and he didn't know Varys had already coached Aegon on his misdemeanours. And yes, the skeleton was really his.

The unnamed captain who sunk the barges didn't survive (enraged Ironborn are not good at accepting surrender). As for the desertions, these were pretty much unavoidable considering the sheer shock of what Euron has just done.

As for the Battle of Highgarden, it is going to be spectacular, never fear. But it will not be for today. We are going to first make a fast trip to the Iron Islands...

 **A Light in the Darkness**

 **The Second Greyjoy Rebellion Part VIII**

 _"My ancestors paid the Iron Price, I am paying for a lot of things, except iron."_ Lord Theon Greyjoy, 300AC.

 _"Ironborn and strategy tend not to mix well."_ Lord Rodrik Harlaw, after the Battle of Lordsport, 300AC.

 _"How few remain of us."_ Lord Rodrik Harlaw, 302AC.

 _"I have waited for this moment a long time, my husband."_ Lady Asha Greyjoy, 300AC.

Far from the wave of atrocities unleashed by King Euron III Greyjoy, the austere Iron Islands were lying in ruin. After several fortnights of massacres, rapes and free destruction, the thralls uprisings had gradually died down, the Ironborn and their former slaves being too few to continue the fight. The two sides lacking immediate reinforcements, the positions were fixed for a short period, during which each man, woman and child having survived the merciless bloodshed tried to put his or her hands on some food to live another day.

By the time Aegon VI invaded the Reach with his Dornish army, the situation had cleared enough to assess the true achievements of the Thrall Rebellion. So far, the islands of Orkmont, Old Wyk and Saltcliffe had been wrested from the Ironborn, with about half of Blacktyde and Great Wyk added to this successes. On Harlaw and Pyke, the uprisings had failed completely. To sum the military situation, it was by any measure the greatest amount of success ever enjoyed by thralls in revolts. The issue was this succession of victories was not enough.

The Iron Islands had never been counted among the most fertile lands of Westeros. Burning and ravaging the scarce and meagre crops of the Islands had not helped things. Most of the longships having stayed at home being wrecks or at the bottom of Ironman's Bay, fishing was out as an option. Deprived of the many food supplies, the rebels began to starve. A few Mallister war galleys were brave enough to reach the archipelago and transport to the Cape of Eagles the more moderate rebels and their families, but these measures were focused on Orkmont and Blacktyde and the entire transport capacity of the Mallister military and civilian fleet would not have been enough to evacuate the remnants of the thralls population in any case.

In the mean time, the Ironborn had at last received troops and a hope to save their homes in the person of Lord Theon Greyjoy, Balon Greyjoy's only surviving son. Recently freed from his status of 'honoured guest' at Riverrun by a colossal ransom paid by his sister Asha, the young lord of the Iron Islands was exuberant at the idea of reconquering the lands which were his by birthright. In the short term, this arrival weakened a bit further the Ironborn, as Erik Ironmaker and the soldiers left on Pyke refused to follow Theon. The son of Balon was unknown quantity, after having spent so many years as a hostage and a ward of Winterfell. The reputation of Euron in cruelty and sadism however, was truly established and the Pyke garrison feared too much the Crow's Eye to risk changing sides.

Moreover, while Lord Theon Greyjoy was firmly convinced this military offensive was vital for the Ironborn propaganda, there were a lot of rumours his sister didn't share his opinion. The facts certainly seem to convince this view: few men having participated in the assault of Casterly Rock and Lannisport were told to go back to Ten Towers. The majority of the soldiers gathered in Ten Towers to crush the uprisings were former sellswords companies which had been judged too dangerous by the Northern and Greyjoy forces to stay in the post-war Westerlands. With remnants of beaten companies like the Bloody Mummers or the Blood Exiles, the quality was very much absent. Mix of butchers, murderers and cowards that no lord or lady wanted anymore on his lands, this 3000 detachment was ordered to attack Blacktyde and relieve Lord Quellon Blacktyde and the defenders of his castle.

The campaign on the island revealed itself to be a bloodbath, even if it was relatively tame compared to the actions of King Euron followers in the south. The Mallister navy had evacuated the former thralls counting among the most moderate, and those who were left knew there was no help which would come from the mainland in time. Knowing all was lost, all rules of war concerning prisoners, mercy or hostages were irrelevant and the fighting started and ended to the death. The Ironborn won, their advantage in numbers and equipment being far too great to overcome, but each thrall who fell did his or her best to take one enemy to the grave. The reconquest of Blacktyde was over in seventeen days, and Lord Quellon Blacktyde swore allegiance to Lord Theon Greyjoy. The price in terms of lives was heavy, though: fifteen hundred sellswords and two hundred and fifty Ironborn had perished in this brutal and violent struggle. In exchange, between three and four thousands rebel thralls were killed.

By that point, nobody was optimistic enough to propose to launch a similar campaign to Orkmont. The list of wounded and killed and wounded had been bad enough for an island which was still partly loyal to the Greyjoy cause; the resistance promised to be awaiting the army of Theon Greyjoy on the former lands of House Orkmont was going to be indefinitely greater, especially as the Ironmakers and the Botleys had already launched several attempts to put back the island under their control. A fanatical, well-prepared enemy with solid defensive positions was no tempting target. Even with the entire pre-war military forces of the Iron Islands thrown at them, the thralls would have made this campaign an extremely expensive proposition. The exhausted troops of Theon Greyjoy, despite the pay in gold coming from the coffers of Casterly Rock, had no will to continue the fight.

To his great shame, Lord Theon Greyjoy was forced to request the help of House Mallister. Except for some captains lacking the tiniest amount of intelligence, it was obvious the Old Way of Balon Greyjoy had utterly failed. The thralls were not willing to go back in slavery, preferring the alternative of dying to a life of horrible servitude in the service of the Ironborn. Fortunately, informants on Orkmont and other islands who had escaped death at the hands of the rebels revealed how desperate the new masters of the conquered islands were to leave these barren wastes where they starved at the mercy of the elements. Lord Theon Greyjoy decided they could leave with the Mallister fleet and settle on the Cape of the Eagles if they wanted to, leaving the Ironborn able to return to their homes and rebuild.

In practise, things were far more difficult. Lord Jason Mallister agreed to evacuate the thralls willing to leave the Iron Islands forever, but for all the islands, not just Harlaw. The persons who had been thralls or salt wives had to be granted the right to take with them all their possessions too. Theon Greyjoy had also to give his approval to a series of measures forbidding his subjects to raid any land north of Lannisport, renouncing to the practise of salt wives and so on. That Lord Jason Mallister felt he could dictate terms, and succeed, to the Iron Islands was particularly telling of the terrible weakness of House Greyjoy and its bannersmen.

It was still a very good bargain for the tired Ironborn, as it became increasingly evident they had not the military option of taking back by steel their ruined keeps and castles. The Mallister soldiers, landing on Orkmont, were shocked to be greeted as heroes and saviours by starved bands which had prepared to die alone in the cold winds of late autumn. The Tawneys and Goodbrothers left alive, no matter their position in the Ironborn social structure, wept at the picture of desolation their lands had become. Some sailors, learning their families were extinct, thrown themselves from the black cliffs to be welcomed in the halls of the Drowned God.

All told, the former thralls and salt wives evacuation was rapid. The fury of vengeance had decreased over the last moons, and except a few deranged assassins and fanatics, the survivors of these terrible massacres were glad to put an end to their involuntary stay in the Iron Islands. Some sellswords agreed to settle and repopulate Blacktyde and Orkmont. Only one island was left to deal with. Pyke.

The old fortress of House Greyjoy had seen better days. Erik Ironmaker, having lost all his sons, did not leave the Seastone much these days and let one of his lieutenants Lucimore Botley did most of his jobs. The meagre garrison, diminished by the counter-attacks launched against the thralls and the autumn diseases, was agonising on its own. Euron III Greyjoy had refused to come home to defend the Iron Islands, instead choosing to ravage the Reach. Lord Germund Botley and Lord Waldon Wynch had gone with him. Less than 500 men were left to defend the capital of the Ironborn, and Lord Theon Greyjoy was coming at them with fresh forces, Lord Rodrik Harlaw having finally reached Ten Towers and Lady Asha Greyjoy personally leading half of her longships from Casterly Rock.

A rational defender would have lowered his colours and surrendered to the mercy of Theon Greyjoy, but the men who were manning Pyke had never been rational, and were even less so after the long period of waiting they had been forced to endure. There was no trade, no merchant, no thrall or salt wife, no reavings. Just illness, hard work to feed the Pyke inhabitants and not enough ale to get drunk. When the first sails of the Harlaw-Greyjoy fleet were seen sailing in direction of Lordsport, the majority of the Ironborn able to walk on their own (Erik Ironmaker was not included in that number) roared at the challenge offered and ran to the beaches to repulse their invading cousins.

Needless to say, with such a grand plan of battle, the defenders were not very coordinated or efficient at the task. Some Wynch, Ironmaker and Greyjoy pirates, having more bravery than brains, had been so busy shouting and running to the battlefield they had not bothered to wear their armours, giving a spectacle of naked flesh punctured by dozens of arrows at the very start of the battle. For those who had remembered to take their time bringing protections and mail, they lasted a bit longer. Like an hour or two. The Harlaw captains had a long list of things to settle with the followers of Euron Greyjoy, and everyone had decided now was the perfect time to deal with it. Lucimore Botley died at the hands of Lord Rodrik Harlaw. Sarwon Botley took an arrow in the eye from Theon Greyjoy. The rest of the Pyke defenders died where they stood, which was in a typical Ironborn fashion anywhere between the castle of Pyke and Lordsport.

The men having sworn their swords to the Crow's Eye could have held a siege of the Pyke fortress itself, if not for the minor detail most of the garrison had charged to Lordsport when the sound of steel clashing against steel was heard. There were barely twenty men left in the ancestral Greyjoy fortress. Robert Baratheon had needed massive siege engines and an army from the Seven kingdoms to open a breach in these walls. The combined Harlaw-Greyjoy force entered the citadel by the main gate, only threatened by one or two arrows from a lone archer.

Only Erik Ironmaker was left to greet the winners of the battle on the Seastone chair, the man being unable to flee or to stand up on his own. No one knew what the man thought at that moment, but the lord of House Ironmaker in all probability cursed Euron Greyjoy. Marrying Asha Greyjoy with a seal to stand in her place during the ceremony was a good deal when it offered the title of Acting-castellan of Pyke and the position of senior commander over the entire Iron Islands when the King was absent. It was less enjoyable when the athletic lady advanced towards you with an axe in her hand.

The fate of Erik Ironmaker is well-known this day, so this author feels no need to repeat all the humiliations he was forced to endure all on the Seastone Chair. When the sun set down, Asha Greyjoy dragged her fictional husband by the legs to the top of the Great Keep and threw him in the sea kicking and screaming. Rumours spread after the fact the Lady of Casterly Rock had made a eunuch of the man before sending him sleeping to the fishes.

The next day, Lord Theon Greyjoy was officially elevated the Lord Paramountcy of the Iron Islands, recognising officially King Robb Stark as his legitimate king. Sign of the monumental changes which had come in the last years, it was his sister Asha who crowned him of the small silver engraved with Ironborn runes circle symbolising his lordship ascension. Lord Rodrik Harlaw and Lord Quellon Blacktyde were confirmed as the governing lords of the Harlaw and Blacktyde islands respectively. Lord Tristifer Botley having chosen to remain at Castamere (as well as marrying an exotic red-head), Lord Symond Botley became the new lord of Lordsport. In this atmosphere of relief and joy, few Ironborn noted that the pale sun which had been glimpsed for mere moments was now replaced by back and threatening storm clouds. The Ironborn had had their moment of hope. But now, the Second Long Night was coming...


	56. Blood of the First Men

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Lysa Arryn or the Eyrie.

Loki sword of fire, Master of Dragons God: Thanks a lot!

X59: Some of the liberated thralls will be able to adjust. Not everyone, it would require a miracle, but with winter approaching the other issues will be delayed. Survival is more important in the short term. The Kingdom of the North has indeed reached its maximal size. As for the Vale, this is the chapter in question...

Matt Quinn: I figured Asha did deserve a bit of fun. Concerning what she did to Ironmaker, let's just say he regretted a lot marrying her.

Robb officially rules about two thirds of the Westerlands, the Riverlands, the Iron Islands, the North and two-thirds of the Crownlands. Vast empire. Also utterly impossible to defend?

The moderate thralls were willing to talk with the Mallisters and were willing to focus on survival rather than commit war crimes. Yes, it was that bad.

raw666: Don't be so quick to believe the Iron Islands saved. There is a reason why the chapter was named like this.

After this chapter, we will come back to the Reach. And after that, the War for the Dawn will begin.

Paul: Tristifer married Hagen's daughter, yes. Asha and a few "dangerous" captains may have done enough persuasion for him. Asha had a little help to drag Erik to the top, not that all his body reached the top of Pyke castle.

Theon did not approve the mental state of his mother, but there's nothing he could do about it. The Bloody Mummers were literally annihilated in the fight for Blacktyde. Asha had already executed herself several of the leaders, and the thralls finished the job. Only Qyburn is alive right now.

No, Littlefinger's fate will never reach Lysa at the Eyrie. Though whether or not it would have made a difference...

Darthas: The Long Night will touch almost of all Planetos. This story will be focused on the fate of Westeros and nearby Essos, but there will be some updates on the threats rising to fight humanity in this dark hour.

And now, the chapter...

 **Blood of the First Men**

 **War Comes to the Vale Part III**

 _"The reign of the Arryns ended at Gulltown."_ Archmaester Marwyn, 304AC.

 _"Lady Forlorn is mine. If my brother wants it, he will have to take it from my hands!"_ Ser Lyn Corbray, 300AC.

 _"The castle of the Eyrie is impregnable, aye. But not against dragons, starvation or a lengthy siege. What good is an impregnable fortress if all its defenders are dead from the elements?"_ Lord Yohn Royce, 300AC.

If Lord Gerold Grafton had hoped the Battle of Gulltown would be a turning point and decisively give him the support of the Lords of the Vale against the Royce-Waynwood coalition, then he had been vastly mistaken. With the defeat and sack of said city, the Arryn loyalists lost their morale and their confidence victory in the Civil War would be ultimately theirs. It did not help that Gulltown was a strategic disaster, as it freed most of the Royce troops and those of their allies to act against the men following the Eyrie rule. The days following the extinction of House Grafton recorded more and more defections from the side of Lysa Arryn, now openly nicknamed the Mad Widow. House Melcolm of Old Anchor, one of the most powerful Vale Houses and its second most important harbour, as well as House Moore rallied to Lord Yohn Royce. This was a heavy blow to the cause of Lord Robert Arryn, as these two Houses had at first stayed neutral and traded with the two sides. House Moore had never been a powerful economic force, but the loss of Old Anchor ended the Arryn cause east of the line Ironoaks-Longbow Hall.

The bad news didn't end up there. Lord Horton Redfort had reached Wickenden with 2 000 men. Lord Edmund Waxley, lord of this castle after the death of his mother earlier in the year, tried to negotiate his way out of the conflict, but to no avail. Lord Horton and his sons wanted him to denounce the Arryn rule, with the only award proposed was the maintain of the pre-war situation of House Waxley. Lord Edmund refused, believing his castle was able to endure a long siege. The fortress of Wickenden had a strong wall and four massive towers. It also benefitted having in its rear the Bay of Crabs and was well-provisioned. The castle was not going to fall without the help of siege engines, which were shining by their absence in the Redfort ranks.

What neither Lord Edmund nor the Redfort force had expected was for several merchant ships fleeing Gulltown to come upset all the plans for the siege in question. Initially, the defenders of Wickenden had believed Gulltown and the rest of the Vale eastern coast loyal to the Arryns would win outright any battle opposing them to the Royces. At worst, Gulltown would be besieged for months. The tale of the five fleeing ships arriving at Wickenden was far different: the city was in flames and had already fallen at the moment they spoke. Immediately, this news plunged the garrison into consternation. Following the Arryns had seemed a safe course before, the nobility and the wise of rule of the defunct Lord Jon Arryn weighting a big part in this decision. Now, it was clearly a not intelligent move.

Lord Edmund Waxley started to prepare for another round of negotiations with Lord Redfort, but was refused this opportunity when a lesser knight named Ser Robert Greystone opened the gates in the middle night to the besiegers. A quarter of the defenders (including most of the sentinels) having joined this mutiny, Wickenden fell without much bloodshed. Caught in their bed by men in full armour, resistance would have been suicidal and with the leadership presented by the Eyrie, few Vale soldiers were enthusiastic at the idea of dying for Lysa Arryn. Lord Edmund woke up only to find himself put in chains by Lord Horton Redfort and his guards. The former master of Wickenden was forced to take the black, while Ser Mychel Redfort, Lord Horton's youngest son who had recently married Ysilla Royce, was named the new lord of Wickenden.

It did not stop there. Lord Lyonel Corbray had finally found evidence the rash actions of his younger brother Ser Lyn, while apparently the act of a bloodthirsty warrior, were in fact a selective form of blackmail which goal was to progressively turn the knights sworn to Heart's Home against their lord and master. Then, Ser Lyn would lead the charge against his elder and became the new Lord Corbray. Except it did not work as the wielder of Lady Forlorn had imagined. Several warriors lied to Ser Lyn's face and went to repeat his words to Lord Lyonel. Two fortnights after the Battle of Gulltown, Ser Lyn Corbray and a party of two dozen riders were intercepted by three hundred men sworn to Lord Corbray, who ordered them to lay down their weapons and surrender under the charge of treason. Not one man of Ser Lyn's party accepted, and the battle began. With several dozen archers and an overwhelming advantage in numbers, the force of Ser Lyn's only chance resided in fleeing, but the weak sun and the lack of rain forbid this option. Ser Lyn fought like a demon (three-quarters of the Corbray casualties were due to him), but he fell in the end, pierced by six arrows and five sword blows. The rest of his men perished with him. Casualties of the Corbray force were of 45 dead and wounded.

The repercussions of what was after all no more than a skirmish were huge for the political scene of the Vale. The Corbray men, searching in his affairs, found enough evidence to be able to prove Ser Lyn had definitely conspired with Lord Lynderly and several wealthy merchants and shady characters of Gulltown to become the new lord Corbray. Bringing back Lady Forlorn, the ancestral Corbray blade, and the news of this betrayal were enough to make the army of Heart's Home enter the side of the civil war with House Royce. Lord Jon Lynderly, who until then had managed to repulse the combined attacks of the nearest lords and launch an offensive towards the keep of Coldwater, was now forced to shift quickly his troops southwards to spare his lands the kind of destruction he was visiting upon his enemies. House Hunter, having crushed all the Arryn loyalists in the Eastern Vale, was also launching small-scaled raids with small barges and embarkations on Lynderly territories. The Snakewood was going to come under attack from three different directions. Only a miracle of the Seven could give Lord Jon Lynderly victory now.

Nevertheless, this campaign did not attract a lot of attention compared to other events. With the Paps of House Elesham and Pebble island of House Pryor declaring for Lord Yohn Royce, attention shifted to the events happening at the Gates of the Moon.

Here, a large assault of the Burned Men clan led by the murderous Timett son of Timett, one of their Red Hands, was taking place. The attack could have succeeded, as virtually nine-tenths of the Burned Men manpower was present and the patrols between the Bloody Gate and the Gates of the Moon had been avoided or annihilated. But the fortress had a lot of torches on its ramparts, and the moon's light was illuminating its approaches of a pale light in this winter night. The Burned Men attack was noticed well before the first raider reached the base of the walls. Consisting in formidable and half-insane fighters, this fact didn't bother the clan reputed to be the most dangerous of the Mountains of the Moon. Perhaps it should have. While Burned Men had the custom to burn a part of their body when they came of age to prove their courage, burning a small part of your body and taking a fire arrow straight in your guts was a whole different matter altogether. The Mountain Clans had never adopted the Andals practises of healers, maesters and medicines: one of their warriors lying wounded by a scorpion bolt or an arrow was as good as dead. So did the bravest raiders who tried to climb the walls and saw boiling oil, fire and other substances being thrown at them. Despite the steel armours and weapons given by Tyrion Lannister and taken on several Westerosi battlefields from the cold hands of their owners, the Burned Men took crippling casualties in the first assault and were finally repulsed after several hours. On the opposite side, Nestor Royce was lightly wounded and the garrison lost a third of its numbers dead or crippled to the point they were of no more utility in the fight to come, but each Vale soldier who had died had sent at least two enemies in the afterlife, and more followed in the days after: the Burned Men seriously wounded died in their vast majority of their injuries.

A rational leader would have retreated now that the effect of surprise was lost: thanks to the fall of Gulltown, Ser Donnel Waynwood had taken again command of the forces garrisoning the Bloody Gate (Lysa Arryn had ordered him imprisoned after Harry the Heir's death) and was now arriving at forced march to catch the Burned Men between the hammer of his mounted troops and the anvil of the Gates of the Moon's wall. Timett decided instead this was the perfect time to ambush Donnel and take the Bloody Gate.

Needless to say, most of the non-Burned Men clan warriors having survived to that point (a majority of them being Redsmiths and the Painted Dogs) looked at their Burned Men cousins with the attitude someone gave to mad men. Waynwood forces were now outnumbering the clans four to one; even in the extremely unlikely case where the clans were able to defeat the Vale troops, there would be so few of them left alive that the term of 'expensive victory' would be an understatement of epic proportions. The Burned Men though, were known to be particularly persuasive when they wanted (often with large axes and swords in proximity and by slamming a few fists on the skulls of the dissenters). The plan of Timett was going to be followed.

What doomed the Burned Men was not the tactics employed, however. It was their inability to count. When Ser Donnel arrived in the nearby valley with two days more than the travel was supposed to take, none of the warriors led by Timett bothered to see if the Bloody Gate detachment had not been reinforced. Grave mistake, because nearly 1 000 men left by Lord Yohn Royce in reserve in the core of the Vale had joined them. Added to the 800 men of Ser Donnel Waynwood, the couple hundred of Timett had absolutely no chance. Which didn't stop them a single them from springing their trap and massacring two dozen surprised Vale knights in the first seconds of the attack.

The rest of the action was less in favour of the ambushers. Timett had disposed almost ideally his warriors in the valley, all hidden behind rocks and everything which could mask the vision of the human eye, but the Vale soldiers in front of them were for the most part veterans of dozen of raids like this. Those were not had been told to form pike formations and to under no circumstances fight a clan warrior one-one-one. The Burned Men initial attack struck hard Ser Waynwood and his troops, but Timett and his senior Red Hands could not kill enough of them in so short a time. Not to mention the Mountain Clans had few archers and no crossbowmen, while Ser Donnel had an abundance of the first and three dozens of the second. The Burned Men rarely carrying complete armours on the battlefield, the arrows reaped an awful toll on the savage warriors of the Mountains of the Moon. The ambush lasted less than two hours all told, the time for the Vale knights to regroup to more defensible positions and launch the decisive cavalry charge which left Timett and nearly his entire force lying dead on the bloodstained stones. The few survivors were pursued mercilessly, and it was later estimated less than a dozen clan warriors had survived to bring back news of the disaster to their homes.

In spite of relatively minor losses suffered by Donnel Waynwood and his troops, the Battle of the Moon Pass unleashed a lot of issues in its aftermath. During the Battle of the Gates of the Moon, Lysa Arryn had continued to bombard Nestor Royce with messengers, ordering him to take a certain number of actions concerning the battle and the Vale. The madness in these missives was evident: asking Lord Yohn Royce to immediately bring his troops back to the Eyrie to protect Lord Robert Arryn was not the action of a woman in touch with reality (and this particular order was one of the most coherent). The attack repulsed and the clan force annihilated, Nestor Royce and Ser Donnel Waynwood made a common declaration in which they officially declared their support for Lord Yohn Royce. In her paranoid mind though, Lysa Arryn had anticipated this last defection and the gates of Stone, first waycastle to reach the impregnable Eyrie, were closed to the former Arryn loyalists. She, her son Robert and a handful of servants and loyal soldiers were now retrenched in the sky palace of their House bearing the falcon banner.

If the intention of Lady Lysa was to anger her former bannersmen, she failed. Nestor Royce was quite willing to tear Lord Robert from the poisonous influence of his mother (although he like others suspected it was way too late), but no commander was willing to pay the price in blood a storming of the Eyrie would require. Not when winter and the non-existing food supply would force the humans inhabiting the Eyrie to starve, die from the cold or descend back to the lands of the Vale in a fortnight or so. It was only a question of time before the summer residence of House Arryn fell, an opinion clearly shared by Lord Yohn Royce when he arrived to the Gates of the Moon to begin the talks with his fellow lords which would end the Vale Civil War. Lord Nestor Royce became officially Lord of the Gates of the Moon, taking with the title one-third of House Arryn's former lands. Ser Donnel Waynwood was confirmed as knight of the Bloody Gate. Ser Wallace Waynwood was betrothed to Lady Myranda Royce, and would become the new Lord of Gulltown once all the rubble and the corpses were finally buried.

Many had waited for Lord Yohn Royce to demand the approval of his allies to become King, but the formidable warrior, knight and general known as Bronze Yohn choose the title of Lord Protector of the Vale instead, perhaps indicating his dedication to preserve appearances as long as Lord Robert Arryn was alive and the Vale Civil War gradually died down. As the health of Jon Arryn's only son had never been good at the height of summer, the former issue was not expected to last long. As for the latter, only Sunkenwood and the remnants of the Grafton fleet dispersed all over the Narrow Sea remained of the Arryn loyalists. House Royce, hundreds of years after the Battle of the Seven Stars, had finally reclaimed their leadership of the Vale. It remained to be seen if this domination would be as long as the Starks over the North, or if their reign would be as ephemeral as the one of the Last Bronzed King Robar II...


	57. The Crow and the Dragon

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Highgarden or any of the Westerosi kings.

Master of Dragons God, raw666 : Thanks for the review.

X59: Oh, it will end before they all starve to death. Lysa Arryn isn't the type of person you wish to die for, and there's no hope of relief.

Lynderly's plan was risky, but he had to have the Corbrays forces on his side to have a chance to win the Civil War. Royce faction was too powerful and too battle-hardened for him to act otherwise. As for a surrender, there's the little problem that after certain acts are brought to light, it's the Wall or death they face.

Robb's emissaries were imprisoned at the Bloody Gate on Lysa orders when they arrived. Once Donnel Waynwood took command again, they were released but the incident will not have improved Vale/North relationships. They are currently at the Gates of the Moon, waiting to be received by Lord Yohn Royce.

Matt Quinn: No, they aren't much of any Vale separatist tendencies, although there is definitely a movement who wouldn't have minded if some lords were willing to join Robb Stark before Lysa Arryn closed the frontiers. Of course, the capital wasn't destroyed in canon and the war was believed in the books to be pretty much over before Aegon landed with the Golden Company.

karinfan123: For different reasons, the Royces are going to move the seat of the Vale power from the Eyrie to Runestone. Andar will be his heir to his House and to the Vale.

Robb is not keen on marrying his sister to a Vale lord at the moment. Keep in mind that they stayed outside the conflict until it was over, so assuring an alliance with them now in his mind is no guarantee they will not stay on the sidelines when he really need them.

Robb is not going to split the kingdom he conquered by the sword. The monarch who follow him may or may not be forced to so, however.

Daven Lannister forces are less than a hundred men by this point and they have no allies anymore. His future does not pass by carving a new fief in the Westerlands.

As for the Reach, revealing it would be giving away too much spoilers...

Paul: Some of the persons Lyn Corbray killed were genuine opponents who would have hampered his ascension. A few of the murders and battles were pure disinformation. And some, Lyn killed them just because he wanted some action. The man is not in the same league as the Mountain, but he's still a really nasty excuse for a human being.

Lysa's fate will be revealed in the next Vale chapter. Her part in this story may end surprise you.

Tristifer is going to regret Asha didn't choose him, but his new wife is soon going to make sure his bitterness doesn't last.

 **The Crow and the Dragon**

 **The Doom of Kings Part I**

 _"You boy, are no dragon."_ King Euron III Greyjoy, 300AC.

 _"Against the flames of a dragon, all the chivalry of the world will not save you. Take cover!"_ Lord Willas Tyrell, 300AC.

 _"I do not want to take prisoners. Kill every Ironborn on this battlefield."_ King Stannis Baratheon, before unsheathing Lightbringer, 300AC.

The battle which would later be called the Doom of Kings had been expected to be particularly bloody by the Reach troops awaiting its beginning. With King Euron III Greyjoy having unleashed magical nightmare after magical nightmare and finally lost his last weak links with human sanity, no one who had been present on the Field of Poison or seen Ironborn in action was under any illusion that the fate which would befall them in case the Crow's Eye won. There were things which were simply too horrible to contemplate, and the Reach soldiers mustered at Highgarden had trained with the knowledge there would be no tomorrow for them in case of defeat.

Unfortunately for the defenders, however, Highgarden was hardly a fortress build to dishearten any attacking force. Win a contest of beauty, yes. Blind the enemy with thousands of flowers and light white stone, absolutely. But unlike monumental feat of engineering like Winterfell or Storm's End, the former Gardener citadel had hardly been built to bleed the enemy or force him to establish a formal siege. Columns, fountains, gracious white constructions were beautiful and constantly managed to awe by their simple presence the visitors visiting the Tyrell home, alas the military downsides had been totally ignored. The white walls of the fortress were located upon a verdant hill, which would have in theory given the defenders time to prepare as the enemy would be seen leagues away. The problem was that the military practise didn't follow the theory. With thousands of orchards, meadows and fields of flowers, the Ironborn vanguard had ample cover to march without been seen.

The famed briar maze covering the base of the hill to the middle wall was more relevant in tactical terms, however this vast and complicated labyrinth of thorns and edges between the outer and the middle walls was more maintained for the pleasure and the entertainment of the nobility across centuries than for lethal traps and hit-and-run attacks in the Dornish fashion. Ultimately, the maze revealed itself useless, as this vegetal construction's primary weakness was fire. And who better to set aflame something than a dragon?

King Euron had decided when he told his battle plans to his commanders to let his sole and only aerial asset, namely the fire-breathing lizard named Dreadwing, leads the attack and fixes all the attention on itself. To be realist, the Crow's Eye was running out of options by this point. Fighting their way through the labyrinth and the rest of the woods surrounding Highgarden would have been a tiring and endless affair even for a conventional army equipped with siege engines; with the Ironborn having neither the numbers nor the trebuchets and the ballista to break the three concentric walls of Highgarden, the dragon remained their best asset to clear the initial obstacles. With the obscurity, the reavers evaded the Reach sentinels. And at dawn, Dreadwing entered in action, leaving a gap of fire and ashes in the defences of Highgarden. Before anyone in the Dornish army or the Reach garrison had the time to understand, the dragon setting aflame the first wall and destroying a quarter of the maze.

To their credit, the Tyrell soldiers were prompt enough to answer to the peril facing them and ran to their post in record time. The harsh training Lord Willas Tyrell had put them through was showing its results, and less than thirty seconds after the creature born of dark magic had revealed its presence, thousands of men were taking position to the wall, preparing the scorpion bolts and thousands of arrows.

This motivation and discipline were impressive, but revealed themselves worthless at the beginning of the attack, as there was no cover for aerial threats in the outermost wall. The two thousand or so infantry who had rushed to their positions were carbonised by the breath of the dragon. The ballista and scorpions were torched. Behind the dying Reach archers and infantry, the maze became an inferno. The ivy and the grass, along with hundreds of flowers and roses perished in the flames.

That was not to say the black dragon had everything its way. Too many of the defenders died in the outermost wall without having the time to band their bows or use their ballista, but their deaths were not completely in vain, as they gave the time for the archers of the middle and the inner walls to unleash wave after wave of arrows and large bolts able to rip apart the skin of a dragon. Even controlled by the dragon horn, Dreadwing refused to face the thousand of projectiles rushing in the air. The dragon did not charge to ravage the core of the citadel, not that it would have had a devastating effect there as this time the defenders had air covers in their towers and plenty of steel to welcome the lizard.

In the mean time, with the most experienced and battle-hardened Reach forces busy to deal with Dreadwing, the Pirate King had unleashed his entire force of reavers, sellswords and murderers towards the Dornish army camping south of Highgarden. Counting on the effect of surprise, the Crow's Eye had made his army cross the day before the Mander with his longships, leaving only a diversionary force to dupe the sentinels on the Northern bank. The ruse failed. Compared to Highgarden, the Ironborn army had too much distance to go on open ground to not be noticed and they had not the shock effect they had benefitted on the Field of Poison anymore: most of the wizards were dead or mentally catatonic, the large number of abominations was reduced to a few dozen slow repulsive monstrosities and the Dornish were renowned for their defensive capabilities. When the more aggressive captains and bloodthirsty monsters arrived to contact, they realised immediately a wall of Dornish pikes, while not quite up to the standard of the Unsullied, was murderous enough to kill them all without taking heavy casualties. Andrik the Unsmiling, famous Ironborn captain named Lord of Southshield by Euron, died in the first instants of the battle with three pikes shredding his torso. Hotho Harlaw was mangled and decapitated, his men being massacred around him. Quellon Botley received a pike in the eye that killed him on the spot.

The loss of so many famous reavers in less than a quarter of an hour was enough for panic to spread in the Ironborn ranks. In spite of multiple charges, the fearless pirates of the Iron Islands were unable to break through the wall of steel facing them. Flanking attacks did not work: the Ironborn and the Essossi sellswords had too little reserves to speak of to make a diversion, leaving largely enough time for the Dornish to change their formation and to face each new threat on their own terms. The green plain drank Ironborn blood in huge quantities in these first hours.

This failure to defeat the Dornish heavy infantry was decisive. Seeing that the first signs of doubt were appearing in the ranks of his enemies, Aegon VI Targaryen charged with all his cavalry in the right flank of Euron's army. The reavers, who had totally missed the presence of horses and knights in the enemy camp (although it was true there were less than two thousands for twenty thousand infantry) were caught on open ground by the spears of the South. Already reeling from heavy casualties, the Ironborn discipline created by Euron and his loyal captains by sheer fear and terror broke in what was objectively the worst of circumstances. Many of the reavers broke the ranks and charged to meet the cavalry, only to be impaled on the incoming spears. Some stood where they were, unwilling to retreat and were torn apart. The Essossi sellswords, feeling the outcome was not what they had been promised, began to run on the other direction. Lord Germund Botley was trampled to death by a war horse, and Lord Donnor Saltcliffe died at the hands of his own men in the general rout. Disorganised by this cavalry assault, the Ironborn frontlines were ill-prepared for the slow, steady advance of the Dornish infantry. The Goodbrothers captains and men forming the centre were repulsed bloodily, their war cry and their war horns being answered by no help. Everywhere the pale sun lightened the battle, the Ironborn and their allies of murder and rape fell or outright ran for their lives. The army of the Iron Islands was destroyed. Its core forces were dead or fleeing, pursued by a vengeful Aegon VI and several hundred Dornish knights and cavalrymen.

Euron III Greyjoy, on the other hand, had a last card to play to continue this insanity. Ordering one of his last prisoners to sound the dragon horn, the Greyjoy insane monarch called the dragon Dreadwing, judging that with the dragon fire burning the outside walls and the maze, the Tyrell army would be unable to intervene in time. Needless to say, it reflected the Crow's Eye to leave only ashes behind him: about half of the forces Euron had disposed the day before were already dead. It would have been a great time to sound the retreat to the longships, where the Dornish would have been unable to follow. Instead the cadet brother of Balon Greyjoy chose a fight to the death.

Dreadwing obeyed to the call of the horn, although it was clear the dragon was now increasingly fighting the call of the Valyrian instrument, burning even some parts of the Reach woods where no one was present. But the real horror came when the flying reptile unleashed its fire breath...right in the middle of the retreating Ironborn. Of course, the cavalry of Aegon was next behind them and they too were caught in the infernal flames, but Euron's scream of rage heard thorough the battlefield was confirmation enough it had not been part of the plan. In this single passage, about three hundred fleeing Essossi and Ironborn were burned to death. Two hundred of the attacking cavalrymen joined them in the afterlife only seconds after.

The Dornish army, stunned by the sudden apparition of this field of flames in front of them, stopped dead on their tracks. Although it was hard to blame them (the warmth and the devastation brought by the inferno were impressive enough), Euron Greyjoy took it as an opportunity to lead a counter-attack with the last two hundred men he had left (mostly from House Codd).

King Aegon VI and the cavalry who had managed to survive by luck or skill the dragon attack had not the speed advantage anymore, having stopped their offensive when they saw their vanguard being torched. Moreover, the cavalry had operated too hard, too quickly and was now separated by hundreds of meters from the main army. A grave mistake made by the young Targaryen pretender, which was exploited by Euron's immediately.

The Dornish, Reach and the lone Kingsguard Ser Rolly Duckfield gave their lives to protect their sovereign, slaying Eldred and Lucas Codd as well as Denys Drumm, but no force on Westeros was able to vanquish the King of Crows. Swords and spears breaking on his black impenetrable armour, the pirate monarch cleared himself a gory path in the ranks of the Dornish and Reach nobility, cutting down Lord Vyrwel, Lord Dagos Manwoody and numerous others proud warriors. At last, the two kings faced each other: Euron III Greyjoy on foot and with a pale long sword, Aegon VI Targaryen on horse with the Valyrian sword Blackfyre. This was no epic duel. Aegon VI had never fought in a life or death struggle before setting foot on Westeros; the Crow's Eye was a veteran of countless raids, naval battles and skirmishes around the known world. The young man did not last a full minute in all, being dismounted when King Euron killed his horse in the first strike, but an error from the Ironborn pirate saw Blackfyre break the magical armour and cut two fingers of the right hand of Euron Greyjoy. Alas for Aegon, far from feeling vanquished by this act of bravery, King Euron used his head to administer a powerful kick to his younger opponent's face and grabbed the Valyrian sword which had just broken his myth of invincibility. And then in a movement recounted with lamentations and cries by bards and historians, the Greyjoy King decapitated Aegon VI.

Shouting a loud roar of victory, the Crow's Eye seized the severed head of his royal enemy and raised it in triumph, with dozens of his subordinates applauding his act. Seeing the Dornish army looking him with terrified and fearful looks, the King of the Ironborn emitted a demonic laugh that no man should have been able to make. This laugh, however, died in a scream of anger. Descending the Mander before the Crow's Eye own eyes, a large number of barges was taking position on the rear of the Ironborn positions, potentially cutting them from the help of their longships.

On the leading ship, a crowned man unsheathed a burning sword and the screams of thousands of men resonated to the heavens, managing to make the dragon Dreadwing partially stop his course in mid-air.

"STANNIS KING!"

Impossibly, the cadet brother of King Robert Baratheon had arrived in time on the battlefield to snatch victory from defeat. And now the battle was total, in the air, on land and on the Mander River...


	58. Hope remains

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Highgarden or any of the Westerosi kings.

 **News:** After several months, we have finally caught up to the point where I'm writing this story. As a result, the updates will now be every Tuesday instead of one every three days. Hopes this story continues to satisfy all the readers.

Master of Dragons God, Guest : Thanks!

toastmesiter: Indeed, only three of the eight kings are alive by that point. As for Daenerys, given that she was far away, she really can't be counted as a participant in this conflict. The war between humans is winding down, but other wars are spiralling out of control...

The Alagoano: You know what the Jedi says: chance doesn't exist...

raw666: I thought about it, but ultimately decided against this fate for Aegon. As for Stannis he still has a respectable army. Whether it is enough or not...

X59: Continuing the war has just become impossible in the short term for Dorne. Arianne is pregnant, so they don't even know if the baby will be healthy at his/her birth and anyway the Dornish armies have lost so many men any warmonger who wants to continue the conflict in these circumstances is going to be regarded as crazy. The factions who want peace have definitely the wind for them.

Varys is going to flee the battlefield. No matter who wins now, no side has any use for him and Stannis has a lot of reasons to mount his head on a pike.

Matt Quinn: Yep, magical armours are vulnerable against magical swords. Which Valyrian swords kind of are...

As for Melisandre sacrificing Euron, this idea is terrifying for a lot of reasons...

Caelleh: Thanks for your comment and your analysis, they have been greatly appreciated. If you have more comments or suggestions to make, don't hesitate.

Guest: The Dornish have heavy infantry, just not as many as any other of the Seven Kingdoms. The problems come when they are forced to offer open battle. The light infantry is essentially consisting of light pikemen, whose main strength lies in ambushes and skirmishes. So on the battlefield, the light infantry is forced to remain in support of the heavy, which is a net drawback in terms of mobility. And against a dragon, pike formations or Dornish cavalry are very good ways to burn...

Paul: For the description of Highgarden, I used the one provided in A World of Ice and Fire, with some personal additions. Glad you liked it.

House Drumm is indeed extinct now. The Dornish troops are going to do their best to ensure no Ironborn leaves this battlefield, but after this all bets are off. Varys and Illyrio will try to find another claimant for the Throne. Conspiring is breathing for those two...

The nicknames reported are coming from several Ironborn deserters who fled before the battle begun. The order "to the death" is going to be respected in spirit in this battle. And yes the irony of Aegon being killed by Blackfyre was intentional.

Now to the battle...

 **Hope remains**

 **The Doom of Kings Part II**

 _"Despair!_ _Did you_ _think_ _that the eye of the Crow was_ _blind_ _? No, I have_ _seen_ _more than any of you, Stag! Your hope only exists because of your ignorance!_ _Go then win the war and the remnants of a broken throne!_ _Go forth and_ _fight_ _! For a little moment you may_ _triumph_ _on the battlefield. But against the_ _Power_ _that_ _now_ _arises in the North and the East there is no_ _victory_ _. To this_ _City_ _only the first finger of their power has yet been stretched._ _All_ _the cold wastes of the North and the burning deserts of the East are_ _moving_ _. Even now the winds of winter announce their assault on the Wall. Westeros has_ _failed_ _! Those who fell on this battlefield today will soon rise again to serve them in death!"_ Last words of King Euron III Greyjoy, 300AC.

 _"Westeros will stop burning after today."_ King Stannis Baratheon, 300AC.

 _"All hail King Stannis Baratheon, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms!"_ Lord Willas Tyrell, 300AC.

 _"Now I regret not being there to see this."_ Ser Justin Massey, 300AC.

The two hundred or so reavers King Euron Greyjoy had left before the battle to guard the longships under the Red Oarsman and Torwold Browntooth had welcomed their task with a sense of relief. Not only it had guaranteed they would be well away from their king and his murderous dragon, but the majority of the barges at the disposition of the Tyrell and the lords of the Mander had been sunk by the Reach captains in the aftermath of the Field of Poison to slow down the advance of the Ironborn. Fighting anything on the river promised to be a fight where they, not the enemy, would have the numerical advantage and the men of the Iron Islands were confident to defeat any opponent in this kind of situation. Battling desperate Reach sailors had been expected. Fighting King Stannis Baratheon forces had not.

To make the matter considerably worse, the fires of Dreadwing on the battlefield, as spectacular and devastating as they were, had revealed themselves a tactical weakness, creating a smoke screen which had masked the last preparations of the Stormlands soldiers. The first warning the Ironborn had of the Burning Heart infantry was too often the formidable battle cry of "STANNIS KING!" shouted by the Stormlands warriors as they charged to exterminate the reavers of the Crow's Eye.

For all their considerable courage (or their lack of brains through it basically amounted to the same thing), the Ironborn felt fear in their hearts. Alas for them, the Baratheon barges had the current, the wind and a good initial speed advantage. The longships were certainly more manoeuvrable than these heavy river ships converted for the war effort but the skill of the sailors and the quality of these swift embarkations were definitely not enough to evade this torrent of troops rushing towards them with the inevitability of a tidal wave. Not to mention there was definitely not enough sailors present to man every longship: most of them had only aboard the Reach men and women prisoners they intended to sacrifice to their dark altars or sell as slaves to obtain more sellswords.

When the Stormlands infantry rushed on the Ironborn warships, it was a slaughter. No weapon skill could counter being outnumbered ten to one, not to mention these soldiers weren't the inexperienced Reach levies Euron captains had taken so much pleasure in massacring in their countless atrocities. This time, they were facing an organised and determined army in front of them... and they died realising the difference it made. All in all, it took less than half an hour for the Baratheon assault force to eradicate all the Ironborn present on these ships. There would be no escape for the reavers on the Iron Islands on this day.

Of course, fleeing was far from the intention of King Euron III Greyjoy. Forcing a slave to sound the dragon horn, the Crow's Eye ordered Dreadwing to burn King Stannis and his entire army into an ocean of flames. And at this moment, to the stupefaction of everyone present on the battlefield, the dragon refused to obey, preferring eating the corpses of the fallen soldiers than charging in a prepared line of Baratheon bows and other ranged weapons. The Crow's Eye raged, cursed, threatened, sounded the dragon horn three times. Nothing worked. The dragon simply refused to obey anymore. And in the mean time, the Ironborn rear-guard on the longships was utterly annihilated.

With the pikes of the Dornish infantry to their right, the remnants of Aegon's cavalry behind, Dreadwing to their left and the infantry of Stannis debarking in front of them, the two thousand or so Ironborn and sellswords were completely encircled. In normal circumstances, an army caught in such a situation would have demanded to surrender.

Situations were hardly normal, though, and seeing the bloodthirsty eyes of their enemies, the men of the Iron Islands understood very well no surrender or any type of negotiations would be accepted. One last scream of defiance rose to the sky from the islanders ranks "What is dead may never die!" and then the reavers charged for one last great and bloody carnage in their dark history. No matter that there was no chance of victory. No matter that their own legacy of raids and pillage had led them to that fateful day. No thought how paying the Iron Price, as was their custom, was now turning against them. Their thirst for violence had ridden of them of any rational mentality, and now they ran to face the soldiers of the Burning Heart on the southern bank of the Mander.

The Baratheon soldiers, under the command of King Stannis himself, rushed to meet them. The shock of the two formations clashing was phenomenal. Each of the two monarchs had launched his heavy infantry in this last act of the Battle of Highgarden, and the momentum of a man carrying a heavy shield and a long sword, while not in the same category of a mounted knight in armour, was enough to crush some bones and inflict serious injuries. In a storm of swords, spears, axes and maces, Ironborn, Reach and Stormlands men slaughtered each other. There was blood everywhere. Champions raised their weapons to celebrate a kill, only to be brought down by a strike in their back. Murderers and rapists, lying on the field, prayed their gods as their enemies trampled them to death.

In this confusion of murderous proportions, King Euron Greyjoy and King Stannis Baratheon were like invincible heroes of legends, battling their way through a crowd of enemies as if nothing could stop them. The Crow's Eye in his midnight black armour and Blackfyre in his intact hand, Stannis Baratheon in grey plate and fighting with Lightbringer. However, the impression of equality was tarnished: for every Stormlands man who fell, at least an Ironborn perished. And the army of Stannis Baratheon vastly outnumbered those men still following the King of Crows. One by one, the islanders, sellswords and pirates were crumbling under the swords and pikes of the South.

By the time the two kings clashed at the centre of the battlefield, less than a hundred Ironborn were still alive, but King Euron was killing several men with each of his strikes, the combination of a Valyrian sword and a magical armour proving too much for any knight or veteran men-at-arms. And then Blackfyre clashed with Lightbringer.

The duel which followed would be remembered by those who witnessed it as one of the most epic sword fight they ever watched. Both monarchs were accomplished swordsmen, even if they had never had the renown of members of the Kingsguard or more famous warriors. Both were relatively fresh from the battle. And both knew that with the Targaryen pretender Aegon VI dead, there were the only two conquerors able and willing to claim the South for their own in this fatidic moment. Euron III Greyjoy opened with a cut and thrust attack. King Stannis answered with a slash towards his enemy head. Soon enough, everyone on the battlefield, including Dreadwing, stopped their respective fights to see this confrontation.

Minutes passed, and no opponent managed to take the advantage over the other. King Stannis managed to strike several blows to his opponent, but although they managed to pierce the armour of the Pirate King, Euron Greyjoy seemed insensible to pain. The end of the clash came without warning. The Crow's Eye feinted a weakness in his guard, King Stannis hammerer Lightbringer in his enemy left leg. And the sword of flames broke, although not without opening a ghastly wound in Euron's leg.

Ignoring what was no doubt a fatal wound, the Crow's Eye taunted his now disarmed enemy in a sinister speech, before rising Blackfyre over his head and preparing to deal the killing blow to the Baratheon king. It was a mistake, as the cadet brother of Robert Baratheon threw himself fearlessly on his opponent and tried to disarm him. The Pirate King had not anticipated this move, and now the two kings were at a stalemate, each giving every strength they had in their body to turn down Blackfyre against the other. But inch by inch, Euron Greyjoy revealed himself stronger, a fact many later would attribute to dark sorcery given the lethal injury at his leg.

Blackfyre was only moments away to cut Stannis's head when the Crow's Eye pushed a horrible scream. Devan Seaworth, Stannis's own squire, had grabbed a Valyrian sword from a dying Stormlands knight on the battlefield (which would later be recognised as the Valyrian sword Black Dawn) and tore open the back of Euron Greyjoy in a perfect vertical strike. All strength the King of Crows had to dominate the duel disappeared on the spot, and the Pirate King fell to his knees in front of the Baratheon king. Stannis did not let this chance pass. In one single movement, the master of Storm's End plunged Blackfyre in Euron's throat. Whatever fell powers the black armour had, preventing someone to die with such wounds was not one of them. Euron Greyjoy fell dead on the battlefield. The man who had wrecked an appalling amount of devastation and ruin upon the Reach was no more.

The battle did not end with the death of the King of the Iron Islands, of course. Seeing his master falling, the dragon Dreadwing roared furiously to celebrate his newfound liberty, and rose to the sky once more. Circling over the battlefield, he presented a threat of flame and death against which the armies in the plain could do little. Would the bows of the Stormlands have achieved to strike down the dragon at the end of the day? No one will ever know. Dreadwing, in his new flight, had approached too much the outer wall of Highgarden and while this particular fortification was a picture of destruction, there were a few scorpions and ballistae still usable.

No one was ever able to know the name of the man who manned the scorpion in this critical hour. Most of the guard paperwork perished in the inferno that day. But instants before Dreadwing unleashed a massive wave of fire on the rare Tyrell survivors, a scorpion bolt flew and struck Dreadwing under the right wing. It did not save the person having just injured the dragon from the fire cataclysm. Nothing could have. But the gulf of fire which erupted from the maw was reduced in strength and did not last ten seconds. Pushing shrieks of agony the lizard born of agony fled northwards. None dared to pursue it.

Their king dead, the dragon fleeing and the longships destroyed, the few surviving Ironborn left were ruthlessly massacred. As the winter sun began to set in a reddish light, the great Battle of Highgarden was finally over. No man of the Ironborn army remained alive in a circle of twenty leagues around the Tyrell citadel. According to the legend, counted afterwards by the bards of the Reach, not one of the reavers was breathing between the estuary of the Mander and Highgarden.

The price of the carnage, though, was atrocious beyond any pre-war comprehension. Thousands of knights and men-at-arms had died to achieve this victory, and only weeks later would Lord Willas Tyrell and the other main commanding officers of the different armies have a partial estimate of the number of casualties endured on this bloody day. The only certain thing was the absolute triumph won by King Stannis on that day. With the death of the two other monarchs on the battlefield, the outer defences of Highgarden demolished and Arianne Martell prisoner (all the Dornish camp had outright surrendered after the battle), the Stag King had the power to put the entire South under his steel fist should he so choose.

Aware of the desperate messages carried by the ravens of the wall, King Stannis refused to take the time to ensure the total submission of the Reach. The Battle of Highgarden, as dreadful as it had been, was only a minor front compared to what was coming in the king's opinion. In the evening which followed the battle, Stannis knighted Devan Seaworth and awarded him a lordship for his heroic act. A council of war was immediately gathered in the utmost urgency shortly after. Over the head of the victorious armies, the dark clouds of winter were rushing southwards. Snow flew on the red plain where so many thousands men had perished. The War of the Eight Kings, although no one knew it for certain, had just ended. Now the War for the Dawn, the conflict for humanity's survival, had begun...


	59. The Last Dawn

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Wall or the Others.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for the review.

Ralph the Fanboy: It's indeed the principle of this story.

X59: Thanks for your support. As for Dreadwing, yes I wanted to show you can command a dragon like you order one of your subordinates to fight on the battlefield. The dragon may not be willing to listen...

As for Varys and Illyrio, yes, their hopes to put a Targaryen or a Blackfyre on the throne are lying with Daenerys Targaryen. For the better and for the worst.

karinfan123: The problems of the Ironborn are far from over. The Reach lords aren't going to wait another generation or two to have their revenge.

Asha is not planning to marry someone for the moment. She has a lover (Qarl the Maid) and isn't very willing to swear the vows of marriage.

Stannis is not exactly thrilled to see Westeros divided, but with the Others threatening all life, he's enough pragmatic to delay the moment he will have to deal with the problem. The fact he has also not the men to make them submit is also a huge factor.

Revealing Dorne future here would spoil too much of the story. If you want to know, PM me.

Castle Black has not fallen to Mace Rayder, thanks to the North sending more reinforcements. But now the real threat is coming...

Darthas: The quote was in fact inspired by the last words of Denethor in the books. But yes, it was evident from the start Euron was not going to die in his bed. Glad to have Khorne blessing. Continue to read and comment!

Matt Quinn: Euron did not sign with the Others willingly, but wearing constantly a cursed armour is bound to have serious consequences. In the end, there was not much of him left, and he wasn't very sane to begin with.

Stannis led the charge on this one because else no one would charge, knowing there was a dragon on the other side and they knew the Dornish cavalry had just been roasted. But you're right; Stannis had otherwise planned to command the battle from his barge, in the rear of the battle.

Margaery is at Highgarden, so yes a political marriage would be a possibility. Although Stannis definitely doesn't trust House Tyrell and he has excellent reasons for it...

Paul: Thanks for the Drumm issue. Will correct it immediately.

Victarion will not have any firm confirmation of his brother's death. Wizard's vague visions telling him Euron has suffered a grave reverse, yes. Confirmation Stannis sent him to the Seven hells, no.

We have not seen the last of Dreadwing. The dragon is well alive and will have his part to play before the end of this story.

As for the rest of the issues concerning every major character, answer in the next South chapter.

And now we return to the North where things are freezing very rapidly...

 **The Last Dawn**

 **The North Musters**

 _"That's a nice army the North has mustered. Too bad the enemy has brought an even bigger one."_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

 _"I thought Ghost was a big direwolf, but the one who just passed in front of me was three times bigger!"_ Eddison 'Dolorous Edd' Tollett, 300AC.

 _"Despite the disaster at Hardhome, our strategic position is unchanged. We have to stop the Others here at the Wall. If we don't, humanity days are going to be dark."_ Lord Denys Mallister, 300AC.

 _"My lord father often told one man on the wall is worth ten under it. But what if the enemy has a thousand monsters for every man you have?"_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

 _"The Long Night is upon us."_ King Robb Stark, 300AC.

 _"You know nothing, Jon Snow."_ Ygritte, 300AC.

As Euron Greyjoy, Aegon VI Targaryen and Stannis Baratheon carried the war in the heart of the South, King Robb Stark was marching northwards. Unlike the rest of the surviving monarchs and lords, the King in the North and the Trident had not the option to ignore any threat signalled by the Night's Watch. If the Wall fell to an enemy or another, it would be the Northern lands which would be on the frontlines and pay the price in blood.

Unfortunately, thanks to the underlying stupidity of the Great Ranging and the disastrous decisions of Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, King Robb Stark made its military decisions before the Battle of the Four Armies on the knowledge a powerful but undisciplined mass of wildlings was coming to besiege the Wall. No mention of White Walkers had been made in the ravens received at Harrenhall, Riverrun or Winterfell, and so the serious extent of the threat was not realised at the time. A powerful force of Glover and Mormont cavalrymen with some light infantry was sent back North, with orders to mobilise a quarter to an half of the Mountain Clans, as well as House Karstark and House Umber reserves to meet the assault of Mance Rayder and his wildling troops. Several other prominent Houses, most notably House Manderly were charged to modernise the shipyard of Eastwatch and station a naval force there to prevent any wildling attempt to bypass the Wall with improvised rafts and small embarkations.

These measures would have been largely enough to parry the threat of the wildlings led by Mance Rayder, all strategists of today agree on this. But what would have been judged "adequate" against an army of the Free Folk was far from meeting the needs against the nightmarish threat of the Others. Worse, thanks to the huge distances involved in the War of the Eight Kings, King Robb Stark and its main army would only have the first reliable warnings of White Walkers sightings several days after the Battle of the Four Armies ended in the total destruction of King's Landing.

The unofficial ending of hostilities with King Stannis, combined to the fall of Casterly Rock in the Westerlands, were more than enough to give the opportunity to the Northern forces to redeploy on the new front which was about to open. With the apparition of the Others for the first time in thousands of years, any human conflict, even the War of the Eight Kings, was taking second place when the survival of humanity were at stake. With a new purpose, the great army of the North began its long walk towards the great work of Brandon the Builder.

Not every soldier would be of the long journey: large numbers of Riverlands soldiers under Ser Brynden Tully were still need to pursue and eradicate the last bandits south of the Red Fork. Lord Edmure Tully kept a sizeable garrison at Riverrun, and numerous Karstark, Bolton and Manderly troops stayed behind in the Crownlands and the Westerlands to ensure these theatres would stay peaceful and do not stage any uprising against their new monarch. Quite a few levies and common infantrymen of the Riverlands being unsuitably equipped to wage a campaign in winter, it was approximately eight thousand men who returned to Moat Cailin by the Kingsroad.

The experienced soldiers left in the South were rapidly compensated by the growing of numbers joining the Stark army on its travel to Winterfell, through. By now, every Northern holdfast, keep and fort had heard about the reappearance of the White Walkers. Passed the initial moment of panic and fear, the preparative began for the imminent cold apocalypse rushing towards the North. Fishermen of the Saltspear, inhabitants of the Barrowlands, knights sworn to White Harbour, wild huntsmen of the Wolfswood: thousands of Northern smallfolk who had waited in far-away locations winter to pass by emerged from their isolated homes to defend the North in its hour of peril. Forts and keeps were fortified. Rich and poor began to burn their dead. The archives and ancient texts were brought to light again, searching for any clue who might indicate a weakness of the Others or the presence of dragonglass mines.

The weather was beginning to be truly awful, even for a Northern winter, when King Robb Stark reached the gates of Winterfell with some fifteen thousand men. The news received there were not good. Less than two fortnights before the arrival of the King in the North, Prince Brandon Stark, heir to the North and the Trident, had disappeared with the heir of Greywater Watch Jojen Reed, Brandon's direwolf Summer, a spearwife named Osha and a stable-boy named Hodor. Despite all of the efforts deployed to find them by Winterfell guards, the search parties were unable to find the beginning of a track with the snow and the wind sweeping everything, plunging Lady Catelyn Stark into despair. Many in the aftermath thought the Reed heir was the guilty party in that case: the young man had widely been described as strange and friendless, speaking of changes in the future, weasels, crocodiles and prophecies. A letter left in one of Winterfell's abandoned rooms confirmed the dangerousness of Jojen Reed's mental problems: in order for humanity to have a chance of salvation, he and Brandon Stark believed they had to search the Children of the Forest and meet the last greenseer in order to find the power to fight the Others.

Needless to say, it was a dangerous folly. Brandon Stark had been crippled by a fall many in the North thought had been engineered by the Lannisters, though there was no proof to support this version of the events. In these cataclysmic weather conditions, a crippled boy, a young crannogman, a wildling woman, a direwolf and a simple-minded giant had very little chances of survival by themselves. Not to mention no human had seen Children of the Forest in a thousand years, and by human the wildlings were included in that category. Unlike giants, direwolves, shadowcats and snow bears, no one had seen the beings who had preceded the First Men for more than a thousand of generations. Searching for them when all the forces of the White Walkers were unleashed could only result in their death.

On a pure strategic sense, it complicated even more Robb Stark's plans. While the King in the North was young, he was also unwed and ready to begin a new campaign which would be terrible in term of casualties. Losing his heir at this moment was a critical blow as it left his younger brother Rickon Stark the heir to the North and a vast kingdom if the King fell in battle. Did it play a part in King Robb's decision to order his sister Arya to stay at Winterfell while he rushed northwards? Undoubtedly, although the private records of Maester Luwin indicated the King in the North also hoped to soften the wild temper of his sister, who had become the unofficial squire of Dacey Mormont and created her own personal guard of women, the infamous "She-Wolf's Pack". Rumours that hundreds of knights were scared by the giant pack of wolves following the direwolf Nymeria have never been confirmed, nor were their mass protest they would resign should the situation continue as the wolves frightened their mounts.

That was not the only issue King Robb Stark had to deal with. While Princess Sansa did not raise any issue to stay at Winterfell with her childhood friend Jeyne Poole, the two being amongst the rare survivors of Lord Eddard Stark's delegation at the capital (unlike Princess Arya who was on the warpaths for fortnights), dealing with the Iron Bank representative revealed itself far more arduous. Tycho Nestoris, the Iron Bank representative, was a man fairly sympathetic to the Northern difficulties, but had also to obey the agenda of his superiors, who wanted to exploit maximally the Westerosi weakness for all it was worth. In the end, the King in the North agreed to pay a good part of the Casterly Rock gold's surplus obtained with Theon Greyjoy's ransom and some harbour rights for the Braavosi ships on the eastern coast of his kingdom. Some periodic deliveries in raw materials and other valuable resources, like wood, iron or furs were also agreed upon for the long-term future. In exchange, the Iron bank would guarantee preferential treatment for North concerning the food and dragonglass transports. Given the issue taken by the War for the Dawn afterwards, many historians and maesters feel the Braavosi definitely gained much more than they conceded in this treaty of trade and debt.

While Robb Stark mustered the North at Winterfell, some reinforcements had already reached the Gift in the person of Tyrion Lannister and the Black Lions. The second son of Tywin Lannister and the Westerlands and Crownlands soldiers having taken the black after the Battle of the Four Armies had chosen to rush ahead with a small party of Northern cavalry rather than wait the full muster of Winterfell and the rest of the North, to the point they arrived to Castle Black three days after the departure of the expedition for Hardhome. It was a great moral booster for the Night's Watch, who was seeing Northern men presenting themselves by the dozen every day to defend the wall (mainly clansmen, Umber and Karstark reserves having a small distance from their homes to the Wall) but no black brother. As several thousands of wildlings had joined the defenders, the weight of 681 black brothers of dubious quality and motivation was becoming more and more irrelevant (and nine of them would perish at Hardhome). Two hundred and seventeen new recruits weren't enough to completely man the holes made by the wildlings of Mance Rayder and the losses of the Great Ranging, but it was a start.

Sign that signs were definitely changing, Lord Tyrion Lannister was from the very beginning of his watch elevated to the rank of First Builder, his expertise and knowledge in siege engines all sorts proving invaluable for the Night's Watch. The three castles of Sentinel Stand, Hoarfrost Hill and Torches were reopened, with more keeps and castles following every couple of day. For the first time in three centuries, thousands of men and women worked together to restore the defences fallen into disrepair, build more siege engines and rise the stones and the rest of the ammunition which were going to be used as projectiles. More ships arrived from Oldcastle, White Harbour, Rasmgate and Widow's Watch, with even a few Braavosi added to the mix.

That was not to say there were not complications to this sudden afflux of soldiers and Northerners in what had been viewed with a certain justice as the poorest and more desolate part of the Seven Kingdoms (save perhaps some parts of the Dornish desert). First, the Night's Watch had been totally unprepared for winter in general and the logistics a war against the wildlings, never mind the White Walkers, implied. Even without any military clash, it was doubtful a third of the black brother would have survived the winter conditions. The logistic efforts thus fell rapidly to an alliance between Houses Manderly, Locke and Flint, with some Umbers and bannersmen of the Dreadfort to play the second roles. Secondly, the newcomers, being more numerous and having better morale and equipment, began to search and find numerous armours and weapons having been hidden since time immemorial. Runic armours and dragonglass weapons were coming out, most of them extremely deteriorated (at least nine out of ten armours had their runes erased or the metal itself was useless) but the proofs were there: thousands of years ago, the First Men had fought the same enemy which was now raising its armies against them. Still, the question of ownership disgruntled the most conservative black brothers as those who were granted these weapons and protections had a tendency to not belong to their ranks.

Finally, there was the question of women. The members of the Night's Watch were defended from having any sort of close relationships with the other sex, but this "sacred vow" had been often broken in peace time when the only opportunities to have pleasant company were the few workers of the oldest profession present at Mole's town. Now, there were literally hundreds of wildlings spearwives on the Wall, soon joined by several dozen of Mormont and other Houses women warriors and smallfolk. Maintaining the vow in this environment was a lost cause from the start, a fact evidently recognised by the Lord Commander Denys Mallister as rape attempts were immediately punished by a death sentence but consensual relationships were ignored.

This period wasn't entirely one of military preparation against the ancient enemy. There were also hostilities against the usual one. If Queen Val and Tormund had led the Free Folk willing to bend the knee on the other side of the Wall, there were plenty of starving wildlings beyond it who judged their sacred duty was to kill as many of the black brothers and Northmen as they could before dying. The monster named the Weeper led a second assault on Shadow Tower, which resulted in a slaughter now that the defences were completely manned. More than three thousand wildlings and the Weeper perished there, their suicidal fury proving no match against the torrent of arrows thrown by the defenders. It was the most spectacular action recorded, but here and there a few dozen diminished clans tried to climb the Wall by subterfuge or launch an assault to end their torment. None survived, and the light of many funeral pyres lightened the snowy wasteland between the Wall and the Haunted forest.

There was another kind of desperate mass migration happening at the same time, but this one the Night's Watch wasn't in measure or willing to stop it. Hundreds of birds of every species flew southwards, fleeing the advance of the Others. Ravens, crows, eagles, falcons and owls, abandoning their winter nests against the peril which was now unleashed. Not that they were the only ones. To the sentinels of the Wall stupefaction, the birds were only the first wave of refugees to come. The tunnel at Castle Black was not yet closed but guarded constantly by a dozen of solid warriors, who assisted to the incredible spectacle of hundreds of foxes, rabbits, elks, squirrels and wildcats rushing towards them to pass the gate and find safety on the other side of Brandon the Builder's monumental work.

A few lone voices elevated to close the doors against this mass animal travel, but the majority, including Robett Glover and Lord Denys Mallister opposed it. Anything which was not killed by the ice abominations was a boon for humanity's cause, even if the animals wouldn't fight side by side with humanity. However, the small animals and the herbivores weren't the only ones to pass the gates. Soon massive bears of every colour, including the great and massive snow bears, followed. Three mammoths. Large packs of wolves, some of them harbouring recent scars fought against the enemy which was coming. And then, the larger predators. Fearsome shadowcats and direwolves, some reaching sizes which made the well-known Nymeria and Grey Wind ridiculous in comparison.

With blue lights manifesting themselves in the distance and the expedition from Hardhome returning with tales of disaster, the thousand years old tunnel of Castle Black was finally condemned. It did not stop a massive shadowcat from impossibly climbing the Wall and pounce on former Kingsguard Boros Blount, but this was the last animal who found refuge behind the Wall (and gave Boros Blount a series of nicknames this author will not repeat here).

It was clear nothing alive would come from Beyond-the-Wall and all the defences of the Wall were put into alert. Night and day, torches burnt on every side of the Wall to warn the defenders of every impending White Walkers assault. Every smallfolk, merchant and non-warrior which was not indispensable was evacuated by ship. Blue lights moved closer, and the snow fell in quantities never seen before by any living black brother, including the venerable Maester Aemon.

The Northmen, Free Folk and the Night's Watch knew the assault would not be long to come, but six days after the last ship departed Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, the reinforcements of the North arrived first, in spite of the dreadful weather having hampered their march. Under a torrent of cheers from the Northmen and their allies, twenty-two thousand men advanced, King Robb Stark at their head. In the words of Ser Podrick Payne, who would later recount the moment in his memoirs, it was "like the entire North was marching to war". Mountain clans, knights of the Faith, bannersmen of the Dreadfort, hunters of every Northern woods, ... even some whale hunters risking their lives in the cold and dark waters of the Shivering Sea had answered the call.

They had arrived just in time. The lull of snow falls and ice was over, the elements burying the Gift under feet of snow. The sun had made its last timid apparition on this day, and now there was only a loud, oppressive darkness. From the Haunting Forest, the enemy was emerging. Hundreds of thousand wights appeared at the light of the torches, their cold blue eyes making a sinister spectacle of death and malediction. The enemy of all life was here, and it had come with uncountable legions to annihilate the defenders of the human realms...


	60. Love and Death

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Wall or the Long Night.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for supporting this story.

X59: Arya is not going to sneak off...for the moment. The frontline is really too far and the weather too horrible to think about evading the guards and going to war.

Meera Reed didn't go with the group like in canon. Unlike her brother, she has stopped having too much confidence in the visions when so many of them obviously didn't realise. As a consequence, her brother didn't inform her when the group left Winterfell and she took this especially badly. Right now, Meera is commanding the contingent of archers from Greywater Watch on the Wall. But no, it hasn't made House Reed popular in the Stark household. As for what Bran will do, it's a surprise...

Boros Blount is still alive, though. He has a few humiliating scratches on the backside but the shadowcat was in a hurry.

Guest: Yes, some direwolves will in all probability find partners to mate...

Matt Quinn: Oh yes, Ygritte and Jon will meet each other in this story.

raw666: Thanks! As for the Wall, you'll have to wait for its final fate a bit longer...

Paul: Lord Meldred Merlyn was among the lords and captains who came back with Lord Rodrik Harlaw. Alas for him, the fisheries of Pebbleton are in ruins, like a food part of Old Wyk.

Meera didn't follow Bran and her brother because unlike them she takes far more seriously her duty to the Starks, not to mention going Beyond-the Wall right now is in the best of cases a great way to suicide yourself.

The animals will certainly prove a problem once winter is over, direwolves and shadowcats are fearsome predators after all. For now, everyone prefers not to fight them as wights.

Boros Blount's misfortunes have not ended with this shadowcat. He will suffer much, much worse before the end.

The Black Lions are all assigned to the defence of the Wall as rangers or builders (the separation between the three branches is becoming less important anyway). Only Podrick Payne has been made a steward. Roose Bolton has not gone North, indeed, he's maintaining order in the Crownlands with some members of House Manderly.

As for Theon's canon crew, most of them sailed with Euron and were massacred one by one in the Southern campaign. If one or two survives, I will mention their name in the next Iron Islands chapter.

 **Love and Death**

 **The Great Battle of the Wall Part I**

 _"The Others are cruel, but not insane. If they are throwing at us thousands of wights, they must be a purpose behind it. One we haven't guessed."_ Lord Denys Mallister, 300AC.

 _"I suppose that when you have an army of a few million under your command, losing thirty of forty thousand is no big deal."_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

 _"Your King has good taste in women, ah!"_ Tormund 'Giantsbane', 300AC.

 _"By the all the Gods, they brought ice spiders and now that? How in the Seven Hells are we supposed to stop them?"_ Eddison 'Dolorous Edd' Tollett, 300AC.

In the last three hundred years, the Night's Watch brothers and the rest of Westeros had wondered countless times why the Wall was so high, often complaining how the maintenance of such a monumental construction stretched to the limit their declining capabilities. Now, seeing the countless wights waiting in a sinister silence below them, they understood why and began whispering the Wall should have been made higher. But the regrets were too late for the men defending the legacy of Brandon the Builder. The Enemy was here.

At the lights of the torches, a lone White Walker advanced in the snow towards the Wall, drawling a still alive man effortlessly behind him. For the majority of the defenders, it was the first time they saw one of the legendary White Walkers and what could be told was the tales and the legends had not been exaggerated in the least. Strange. Beautiful. Elegant. Dangerous. All these words could be applied to the being now in sight of thousands of human eyes. Clad in ice armour, a gigantic ice sword in his right hand, illuminated in a blue light, the White Walker was a blazing blue light in a sea of darkness.

Finally, the inhuman being stopped. The human who had been dragged from the Haunted Forest was forced to kneel and then in four impossible slashes, the White Walker sliced the body of the man many had recognised by his clothes as a black brother. The rest was no less cruel. Laughing in a cold, inhuman scream which carried to the top of the Wall, the ice warrior collected the head of the man he had just butchered and showed it high in a clear sign what the intentions of these abominations were towards humanity.

Yet, it was a mistake. The Other had stayed perfectly immobile for long seconds, and the black brothers on the Wall led by Tyrion Lannister had taken the opportunity to arm a scorpion with a dragonglass-pointed bolt. The White Walker may have believed he was out of the Wall siege weapons range, but it was without counting with the ingenuity of the defenders. Ten seconds after the execution of the black brother below, the terrible laugh of the White Walker ended with a bolt scorpion tearing him apart and transforming him in a cloud of ice shards. On the top of the Wall, Northmen, Free Folk, Black Brothers and all the defenders drew their weapons and screamed in defiance.

It appeared evident from the start that whatever reaction the Others had expected from the defenders, the killing of their champion and the screams of defy they were hearing were definitely not it. The time of hesitation did not last. From the edge of the Haunted Forest, a dozen or so Others appeared and drew their ice swords, pointing them in direction of the Wall. In a horrible scream which let all humans on the battlefield, hundreds of thousands wights charged towards the human defensive positions. The Great Battle for the Wall had begun.

The first instants of the battle were a pure slaughter for the forces of Death. Despite the protestations of thousands of black brothers they had never seen anything magical happening on the Wall, the first wights touching the Builder's fortification were consumed by long blue flames, reduced to cinders in an instant. As the defenders on the Wall were themselves not inactive, pouring large stone barrels and fire arrows in the mass of the undead, the wights perished by the hundreds without much need to be accurate.

Alas, it didn't last. Brandon the Builder feat of magic engineering had been the work of a master, specifically conceived to repulse the Others in case they came back again for a Second Long Night. However, either the Night Watch had forgotten the means to maintain the magical protections or the idea there would be no assault for several thousand years had not been imagined by its creator. After several minutes, the blue flames grew weaker and weaker, allowing more and more wights to touch the Wall. Finally, the offensive magic which protected the Wall against the Others and their dead minions was no more.

That was not to say the White Walkers were going to have all their way. While the active magic of the Wall had failed, the wights had still to pass a seven hundred feet tall fortification, with elite men shooting at the attackers all the way up. Great axes and falchions were waiting at key intervals to rip apart the dead. And for those who would manage to reach the summit, there was still a large army with the very weapons the armies of cold feared in this world. Fire, dragonglass and Valyrian steel. The defenders had not a lot of these now priceless materials, but the wights which managed to not be obliterated by the siege engines, the barrels of stones, the fire arrows and the rest of the prepared defences were not that numerous. A wight had no instinct of self-preservation, and while its speed was those of a fast human, its dexterity was far, far worse. Climbing properly was not a skill which had followed them in this damned afterlife.

The Others generals didn't seem to care. By ignorance or sheer arrogance, the generals of Death and Winter had launched the corpses under their command at the most defended portion of the Wall just in front of Castle Black, and they continued to pour thousands of corpses in the melee, taking casualties which would have made any human general pale. But the Others were not human. And they certainly didn't care about the survival rate of their wights. The assault lasted hours, and the defenders had to harden their hearts as they massacred the wights by the thousands. Because it was not undead they were killing: too many Free Folk were recognising a clan member they had lost in their long walk to the Wall. A lot of black brothers knew the bodies who were now trying to kill them, men they had been friends or admired in days where the sun still lightened the sky and the snow. Even the Northmen had lost some of their scouts, and were now seeing those soldiers included in the armies of the Enemy.

The Wall defenders screamed insults, damning the Others to an eternity of hell, but the White Walkers did not care about the human words. Their inhuman and frozen screams were back in the air, the inhuman beings laughing at the humans being forced to massacre their own friends and brothers. Many an archer would have liked piercing an Others' skin with dragonglass, but it was impossible. The ice beings had taken what had happened to the first of their species to approach the Wall to heart, and were now almost hidden by the edge of the woods, the snow and the darkness, their blue lights being the only sign revealing their presence.

Overall, the first part of the Great Battle of the Wall lasted a bit more than eight hours. The outcome was never in doubt. The Others had launched without remorse their wights in a large frontal assault against the elite of the humans defending the Wall, and the undead had been slaughtered almost to the last, their inability to protect themselves against fire causing terrible damage to these bodies animated by magic. As the winners launched a vast volley of fire arrows afterwards to burn the remains of the defeated wights, it was practically impossible to know the number of Others servants who had been destroyed on that day. Lower estimates, generally made by the veterans of King Robb Stark, affirmed more than forty thousand wights perished in the first assault. Free Folk and black brothers' numbers were usually more optimistic, ranging from fifty thousand to eighty thousand. No wight had reached the top of the Wall and remained there for more than three seconds. For the price of fourteen men and one woman dead, ten down due to frostbites, the human coalition had scored one of the more one-sided victories in known history.

Yet while the common soldier celebrated and exulted in the hours after the massacre, the wisest amongst the garrison knew the fight had felt wrong from the very start. There had been no giants, mammoths or any kind of undead animal in this assault against Castle Black. The Others had stayed away from the battle, disappearing once their dead troops had burnt over the frozen ground. Moreover, the battle had not gotten further than Queensgate eastwards and Oakenshield westwards. All the other garrisons, from the Shadow Tower to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, reported no enemy activity.

At least this battle had allowed to narrow the differences between the former wildlings, the black brothers and the Northmen. A bit too much in too many cases. If there had been close relationships before the Others first assault started, many couples went out of the shadows afterwards, no doubt judging their near future promised to be too short to let the opportunity of enjoying their love while it lasted The most famous of these couples was undoubtedly the one between King Robb Stark and the "Wildling Queen" Val, but they were many others, some implicating already married Northerners or sworn bothers of the Night's Watch having vowed to remain single.

The day, in the mean time, never reappeared. It snowed constantly by then and the visibility fell even further despite the thousand of torches blazing to warn of any enemy attack. Without the light of the sun, the men turned at regular intervals of hourglass on the Wall in the night, with some thousands men affected to cut more wood and transport more stones and arrows at the top of the gigantic edifice. Finally, about three days after the first assault of the undead had failed, the Enemy returned back in force.

Thousands of sinister blue lights, dark warning the Others were making their come-back, forced the defenders to rush at their posts in record time. And before the stunned eyes of the defenders, the Haunted Forest disgorged an improbable amount of dead warriors, with numbers far from any pre-war comprehension. Thousands of dead black brothers. Tens of thousands deceased wildlings. More than fifty wights of giants. Undead mammoths by the dozens. Several species of dead birds and animals of every known species. The army of Death was so large the no man's land below the Wall was black of their march in mass, and it was ranging from Westwatch-by-the-Bridge to Eastwatch-by-the Sea, although at some points the concentration of wights seemed less important than in others (relatively, as even a weak position had 'only' hundred of dead opponents).

Behind them the Others came. Not lone White Walkers warriors this time. Ranks upon ranks of inhuman infantry, all clad in ice armour reflecting their blue flames into the darkness, all brandishing quantities of their cursed spears and ice swords, an army of cold and death. Then came the cavalry, White Walkers mounting dead horses and different species of animals, but the real shock came after with taller and more frightening ice beings mounting huge nightmarish ice spiders. All the while, wights continued to pour by the thousands in front of the Wall.

To the human's horror who assisted to this deployment of death, the realisation was brutal. The first assault had been a mere test, a means to judge the garrison's performance and have an idea how defended the Wall was. The White Walkers had wilfully sacrificed a small portion of their dead servants, aware they had hundreds of thousands behind to fill the holes. Now the real assault was about to begin...and many on the top of Wall grew nervous in their hearts, as never in generations anyone living had seen such a gathering of strength mustered under one banner.

And to put a climax to this folly of frost, the ranks of the White Walkers largely opened, letting pass a colossal warrior in a midnight-black armour, followed by a female Other mounted on a thing which froze the courage of every living man and woman, as it could be none other than a monstrous ice dragon. The beast appeared to be made of very ice, with eyes of pale crystal, vast translucent wings and a frigid breath which froze instantly the wights too near from it.

Even with the distance and the lack of luminosity, every defender felt there was something wrong with these two new apparitions. Of the first warrior, nothing could be seen under his armour as darkness seemed to surround him, but the White Walker woman was terribly beautiful and wore a dark blue armour, with flashes of blue light erupting from her skin at every couple of seconds, which made her a beacon of blue light compared to the rest of the things waiting in the snow. There was no parole spoken, no confirmation of who those two beings were. But everyone on the Wall knew them. The Night's King and his Queen had come back to besiege the human realms. And now the situation was rapidly turning from bad to catastrophic...


	61. The Defeat of the Invincible Armada

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Meereen or Slaver's Bay.

Master of Dragons God, raw666: Thanks for the reviews!

X59: There will be indeed clashes between the ice and fire breeds of dragons. Not saying which one(s) will be involved. Benjen has not been seen in the ranks of the dead for the moment. Bran and his group will have relatively an easier time, yes. I say relatively because the area is still pullulating with thousands of wights, and while the Wall defenders take priority, hunting a few humans is largely in the power of one or two Others.

As for Robb and Val, the desperate situation no doubt played a role in their tryst. They genuinely love each other, though, but they will have to survive the winter to explore a bit further their relationship.

Guest: Thanks for the support and the comparison with Warhammer.

Matt Quinn: Daenerys not being here is most my fault. It is a certain author who sent her far away who must be blamed...

Paul: No, this story will stay the same no matter what happens when/if the Winds of Winter get released (don't speak about A Dream of Spring, this book is just that: a dream). I may do another ASOAIF AU after GRRM delivers the Winds of Winter, but it will not be in relation with this story.

Mistake corrected.

There are exactly six giants left alive right now. Five went with Val and Tormund. Then there was Wun Wun, who was the only giant survivor of the Hardhome massacre.

The ranger who was massacred was one of the mutineers of Craster's Keep. Betraying Lord Mormont didn't save them in the end.

You will have to wait for the fate of Bran. Yes, the ice dragon can fly and breathe a cold attack which is as dangerous as dragonfire. Fortunately, it is still a massive target for the Northern archers. Stannis was at Highgarden in the last chapter we saw him, he is still in the South and too far away to participate in this massive battle.

As for the events of Slaver's bay, some things happened like in the books, some didn't. But history is written by the winners, and given the triumph of Daenerys camp, truth was sometimes stretched or 'improved'. Most of the Astapor citizens were butchered in the sack or were pursued until they fell from starvation or diseases below the walls of Meereen. Some survived in the hills around Astapor, but for all intent and purposes, there is now only Yunkai and Meereen as cities in the area.

At least until this chapter...

 **The Defeat of the Invincible Armada**

 **The Essos Apocalypse Part III**

 _"I tried to negotiate with them. You saw the result. Now we are going to try it another way. The Targaryen way."_ Queen Daenerys Targaryen, 300AC.

 _"Against dragons, bravery and courage are useless."_ Anonymous Ghiscari proverb.

 _"Victarion is not the same man he was when we left Westeros."_ Rodrik Sparr, 300AC.

Once the initial moment of shock from the Battle of Meereen was passed, the massive army of Daenerys Targaryen was not long in shaking itself and taking the offensive. In reality, the Mother of the Dragons had not the choice: Meereen and its surroundings could under no circumstances supply an ordinary army at the moment, much less the one combining Unsullied, Dothraki and free Meereenese which was waiting outside its walls.

That was not to say the situation had not become clearer with the return of the Queen. Victarion Greyjoy having had the audacity (or, as whispered many, the folly) to steal by magic and treachery the dragon Viserion, all the Ironborn prisoners were tortured in the hope they revealed the plans of their Lord Captain. As most were completely ignorant or thought themselves above pain and death, the agony of the captured men of the Iron Islands was in general long and terrible, before they were thrown to the dragons to be utterly roasted. The former Meereenese nobility, who had revealed itself to be the main force behind the terrorist group the Sons of the Harpy, joined them in the cells and death. So did the thousands of prisoners who had revealed themselves all too willing to rape and murder through Slaver's Bay, only to surrender when the fate of the battle turned against them. Thousands of men and women having rebelled against Daenerys Targaryen perished in less than five days, and combined with the toll taken by the disease, no one was really eager to estimate the number of casualties. Archmaester Marwyn, who observed these tragic events, thought that between 17 000 and 19 000 persons lost their lives after the battle. King Hizdahr zo Loraq, who had been imprisoned since the beginning of the hostilities below the walls of Meereen, was dragged into the light and beheaded by the Queen herself. Few mourned him, as the man had now revealed his true face: those of a coward and a traitor.

Slavery was again officially banned, and this time the Mother of Dragons made clear this edict was to last forever. The pit arenas were closed, not that this was a problem as most of the fighters had died in the last clash of steel. The wealth, the supplies and the resources of the nobility were divided and distributed among the population of Meereen. Skahaz mo Kandaq was named governor of Meereen until the Queen returned from war, with the not-so-subtle warning any disloyalty would be paid in blood and tears.

And then Drogon rose from the Great Pyramid of Meereen, while tens of thousands of men marched to war. The smallest part of the army, some 7000 Dothraki under a young Khal named Loquo (all his predecessors having refused to bow and died as a consequence) were riding eastwards. Daenerys had not forgotten Qarth's role in the Battle of Meereen, and Loquo's force was to be the instrument of retaliation. The greatest part of the new Targaryen army, on the other hand, was walking westwards to Mantarys via the ruined city of Bhorash under the command of Ser Barristan Selmy. This force was including the majority of the Dothraki warriors, thousands of Unsullied, recruits and new Freemen, some 60 000 warriors in all.

The rest of the army was not walking. Numerous longships, war galleys and transports were now available, and profiting from the temporary absence of enemy fleet in Slaver's Bay, about one thousand Unsullied and several thousand Meereenese volunteers embarked on the ships. Not to sail out of Slaver's Bay, no, such a travel would have been a pure suicide for the novice sailors of Queen Daenerys Targaryen. But for an amphibious assault towards Tolos and Elyria, their skills were judged more than enough to carry the day. This new strategy, which was nicknamed "Operation Lightning Dragon" by the historians afterwards (despite nowadays propaganda affirming the contrary, the Mother of Dragons never gave code names to military operations) of course left a city untouched on the flanks of Meereen. Yunkai.

Alas for the Wise Masters of Yunkai, that no army marched in the direction of their city did not mean Queen Daenerys Targaryen had forgiven them. Quite the contrary. It was just that the last heiress of Valyria had decided to deal personally with them. The city of Yunkai was ill-prepared to continue the war, to say the truth. All the sellswords companies which had been hired had been annihilated in the butchery around Meereen. The few ships they had owned were now burnt, sunk or passed into Targaryen service. The 'regular army', in majority slave-conscripted, was now a mass of corpses burning or ashes in the winds. All the generals had perished. The few soldiers who were neither slaves nor incompetent left in Yunkai numbered less than a couple of hundred. For all its tall yellow fortifications, the city was in no state to even resist a minor siege: its walls were crumbling of old age, the slaves they had had once upon a time had mostly left to serve the Mother of Dragons or died in their army, leaving only old men to serve as a weak defence force. The slavers residing in the city, very well aware of the disaster which had just happened, had agreed they would surrender immediately should any enemy come in sight of their homes.

Queen Daenerys Targaryen wasn't willing to offer them the chance, having seen several times the liberties the Yunkai emissaries and diplomats took with their engagements. In a move which was reminiscent of Aegon the Conqueror over Harrenhal three hundred years ago, Daenerys Targaryen flew Drogon, the massive black dragon being followed by the green Rhaegal, over Yunkai in the darkest moments of the night. Thanks to the general incompetence of the Wise Masters and the garrison, no one save a few alcoholics saw the reptiles taking position over the city.

When the heiress of Valyria gave the Dracarys command to her two dragons, the surprise was total. An instant the night was dark and almost all the Yunkai population was sleeping. The moment after, two large columns of fire were illuminating the city in crimson colours. The dragonfire, one of the most destructive powers ever witnessed on the surface of this world, was now unleashed in Yunkai houses and streets. Black fire with red sparks torched the pyramids and the symbols of the harpy. Places, small habitations were blazing of red-orange flames with sparks of green. The slavers and their subjects, woken brutally by the assault, were unable to acknowledge what happened in the time delay given to them. In a second passage, Drogon targeted the massive pyramids and the best quarters where the leadership of Yunkai lived. All perished in the hurricane of flames which followed. Deprived of their Wise Masters (the name would never be spoken again without a lot of irony and sarcasm) the inhabitants of Yunkai were terribly confused and unable to mount a coordinated answer, all the while the two dragons were dooming the city and their slaves were racing to leave the place of destruction their homes had become. No ballista or scorpion was manned. No trebuchet threw a projectile in anger. Less than a dozen archers shot arrows from their bows. The slavers of Yunkai died, and they died not in a war-like fashion but like pigs in a slaughterhouse, just as thousands of the ones they had subjected to slavery stabbed them in the backs or disappeared into the hills, taking this last opportunity to recover their liberty.

When the sun rose again, Yunkai was still burning, a gigantic column of smoke which was seen according to some navigators from New Ghis, Mantarys and even beyond. With Astapor sacked by the Slaver's Coalition, this was the second and last city of Slaver's Bay to be utterly wiped out. To this day, the ruins of Yunkai have not been reoccupied or rebuilt in any manner, the inhabitants of the region still respecting the orders their surviving ancestors received on that day from the Dragon Queen.

In the Gulf of Grief, at approximately the same time, another dramatic battle was unfolding. The Iron Fleet under Victarion Greyjoy had not yet left behind the straits of Ghozai, when they came face to face with the vanguard of the gigantic Volantene fleet whose help had been requested by Yunkai. Thanks to the Red Priest named Moqorro, the Ironborn were aware their foe was coming. The Volantenes admirals, lacking any supernatural help, were lacking such information and were ignorant when the battle was joined the Battle of Meereen had even happened. To make further disadvantages, the Ironborn had a dragon magically controlled and Moqorro had agents of his religion disseminated among every warship of his fleet, which at his signal (a very bright flame in the sky from Viserion) were to revolt and take control of every ship from Volantis. With this armada in their possession, the slaves and the Ironborn would then sail westwards and liberate Volantis from the tyrannical oppression of the slavers. The plan it was said, was qualified as "brilliant" by the Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet.

In reality, it was anything but. For all the accusations of nepotism, arrogance and selfishness they were accused of, the Volantenes nobles had not survived hundreds of years at the top without putting down in bloodbaths countless slave rebellions. Moqorro supporters had also been far from discreet before and after leaving Volantis, rising the suspicion of a good number of captains who took many more precautions than they should have in any other naval campaign. But the biggest problem had been to forget that no sane officer who had slaves on his ships would give them the possibility to have access to weapons. Oh, they were pleasure slaves and poor freedmen who had been kept off the list of potential rebels, but the great majority of the enslaved manpower was in chains from the moment they left Volantis and the keys to freedom were out of reach.

When Moqorro gave the signal to begin the general mutiny, all hell broke loose. The Volantis fleet was 534 war galleys and 86 transports strong (6 war galleys and 4 transports having been lost during the journey), with about 270 000 men aboard. Nearly two-thirds of them were slaves. Overall, it was estimated less than a quarter of these ships went completely under slave control in the first instants of the insurrection. In the other transports and war galleys, the best the slaves achieved was a stalemate, but too often the worst happened, with the officers and the rest of the free crew ruthlessly massacring the rebels. In a single hour, the armada from Volantis bled and generated thousands of corpses, colouring the Gulf of Grief in a crimson colour. The revolted slaves were extremely motivated, but they had no experience working the ballista, the scorpions or any type of sharp weapons. Ship by ship, the Volantene soldiers regrouped and boarded the hulls lost under slave action. The insurrection was going to be put down in a monumental massacre.

It was at that moment Victarion and Moqorro unleashed the dragon Viserion on the Volantene fleet. Seeing the uprising was about to fail, Victarion Greyjoy had decided to launch the most destructive weapon at his disposition. The brother of Balon Greyjoy had sunk or captured the war galleys making the vanguard in the confusion, and was now in position to reap the benefits of the day. The Volantene fleet was already dispersed, in flames and had suffered heavy losses. They were absolutely not in any condition to fight a dragon. Despite the bravery of their sailors, the warships of Volantis started to consume themselves, not by one or two, but by dozens, lightened by the terrifying power of dragonfire.

In the end, what saved some of the warships was their dispersion when action was met. Entering the Gulf of Grief, the large Volantene fleet had been spread on hundred of leagues, a distance so important that even a dragon had no chance to find and burn them all. Moreover, seeing many of their fellow captains and their commands being torched, a large minority of the Volantis captains acknowledged their only chance of survival remained in flight and acted accordingly. Some tried to rally Elyria or Tolos, but the vast majority of the runaway ships were sailing back to Volantis or New Ghis, that taste of massacre and burning having definitely proved enough for them.

This gigantic naval battle, fought in the waters separating the Gulf of Grief from Slaver's Bay, was going to enter history as the Sea of Fire. The Volantene fleet lost 308 war galleys and 53 transports outright sunk. 31 war galleys and 3 transports were captured by the revolted slaves or the Ironborn. Many hulls would sink trying to reach safe harbours due to the battle damage or the storms wracking the theatre during the period. Volantis had just sent one of the largest fleet in known history to its doom. Although, the number of deaths was never fully estimated due to the distances involved and the sheer size of the confrontation, it was likely more than 150 000 Volantenes were welcomed in the halls of the Drowned God. As a consequence, the way to Volantis was free for the rebel slaves and the Ironborn, though the latter were considerably less enthusiastic than the former. Casualties in the Iron Fleet had been extremely light for such an engagement (one single longship scuttled and most of the crew saved) but the behaviour of their Lord Captain was beginning to be extremely erratic, his right eye was red and one of his arms was now completely black and smoking, phenomenon which reeked some kind of horrible magical ritual.

The remnants of the Volantene would have gladly exchanged the Ironborn problems against the ones they suffered. Not a fortnight after the Sea of Fire, about twenty war galleys and two transports approached the city of Elyria, only to come under the fire of two dragons. Queen Daenerys Targaryen had crossed with Drogon and Rhaegal Slaver's bay, and was now unleashing dragonfire on the armies and fleet of the reeling Slaver's Coalition. The cities of Tolos and Elyria had not sent all their forces available to the slaughter of Meereen, but it made little difference for this fight. Their own slaves were rioting in the streets. The few warships who managed to get out of their respective harbours were burnt by the fire-breathing reptiles, and they were not many survivors left when one thousand Unsullied and the rest of the Meereenese Freedmen and other warriors came ashore. Understanding the battle was lost (if such a one-sided beating deserved the name), Tolos and Elyria surrendered to the Mother of Dragons.

With all resistance eradicated around Slaver's Bay and the certainty Victarion Greyjoy was sailing to Volantis (enough Volantene sailors had survived to speak about the Sea of Fire), Queen Daenerys Targaryen now turned her eyes in the direction of Mantarys. The last city still intact having taken the arms against Meereen, it was the last obstacle before the march westwards on the ancient Valyrian marvel nicknamed the Demon Road, and soon enough Mantarys was going to be encircled by tens of thousands soldiers on the ground and two dragons from above. The real question was not if Mantarys was going to fall. But rather who was going to reach first Volantis...


	62. The Gates of Hell

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Wall or the King in the North.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks!

X59: It would indeed be the best scenario for Volantis. Alas Daenerys is taking the land route and Victarion the sea one. And the crossroads for the two is at the city of the Volantenes, not before.

Theon (and Asha I suppose) will have to deal with the fallout of their brothers and uncle's actions. The Ironborn have really angered most of the continent. Daenerys isn't making a difference right now between Victarion and the Ironborn. And Victarion was acting (very nominally) under Euron's orders, don't forget.

raw666: Daenerys is still regretting her actions somewhere in her heart. There is still in her a part of this little scared girl, but the Slavers Coalition have challenged her a bit too much. As for Westeros, she will be forced to tone down her rhetoric a little. There are no slaves to free there after all.

As for the dragons...Viserion and Dreadwing are two completely different beasts. Victarion will not arrive in Westeros before his brother and his entire army dies in front of Highgarden.

Guest: Coming right now...

karinfan123: Depends on how 'near' the future is...the next Vale chapter will arrive after three or four more chapters. The Arryn lands are going to be divided by the winners, with the Eyrie in all probability being taken by Yohn Royce and the rest shared between House Waynwood and House Royce of the Gates of the Moon amongst others.

Darthas: It's true a fight between Victarion and Euron would have been something to behold. Alas, given Victarion's approach to strategy, Euron would have certainly won such an engagement extremely easily. Oh, well. Maybe GRRM will write it in his books which shall not be named...

Matt Quinn: By all accounts, Daenerys believed her husband had tried to assassinate her. So his execution was certainly...personal.

Paul: I'm flattered by all your reviews, but try to regroup them a bit, please.

All the pit fighters died. Skills in a fighting pit and fighting on a battlefield are very different things, and as time passed, more of them tired and died, their lack of formation and discipline proving their doom. Barristan squires survived, some of them will make appearances in the future.

Marwyn is a very resourceful fellow. He took Sam's ship because it was the easiest option to leave Oldtown and sail to Slaver's bay. Here, he simply managed to find another. The man has plenty of contacts from his youth in Essos to manage it. The Widow on the waterfront will be mentioned, and no the triarchy system (a system made by the rich for the rich) is not going to survive. The fate of the Essossi prisoners and the Mole's town prisoners are reminders this world isn't really a nice place. In both cases, there were some survivors, but not many.

All the Stark children are skin changers, but they are of varying power. Arya, Sansa and Rickon will be recognised as such in the future (in fact everyone by now has deep suspicions regarding Arya). Robb, however, is in many ways the weakest and has not really publicised his warg connection with Grey Wind. Moreover, his status of king and army leader leaves him far less time than his siblings to experiment his talents.

Some nobles were behind the Harpy attacks in Meereen. Not all of them, but a good majority. And they had a leader (which they may or may not have followed the orders to the letter). His identity will be unveiled later. Reznak was executed by Skahaz agents. Not leaving an opponent in his back and all of that, not to mention his association with King Hizdhar was a heavy political burden.

As for Qarth, it will be in a chapter far in the future, which will describe a bit the situation of the world. Now we return to the Wall, where things are getting rather exciting...

 **The Gates of Hell**

 **The Great Battle of the Wall Part II**

 _"If Hell exists and has frozen over, it must look like this."_ Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

 _"We need reinforcements! White Walkers coming! Oh by the Seven..."_ Anonymous defender of Greenguard, 300AC.

 _"They did their duty. They held."_ Jon Snow, about the defenders of Greenguard, 300AC.

 _"Death is the fate of all warriors. A fate we are soon going to share, I fear, your Majesty."_ Lord Denys Mallister to King Robb Stark, 300AC.

 _"HEAR ME ROAR!"_ Last words of Lord Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

The human defenders were still trying to cope with the colossal number of enemies facing them when the Night's Queen shouted a sinister speech in an unknown language. It was not Westerosi or any language known to man, but the effects were all too clear. In a shrieking sound so horrible it resonated like the end of the world, the armies of death were unleashed against the Wall.

Unlike the previous assault however, the human defenders realised quickly the Others leadership had established a discipline of sort over the thousands of wights attacking. The undead were not coming in a gigantic wave against the great fortification anymore, but instead in small echelons of 'only' thousands, denying the Northern archers the dreamt funfair shoots they had enjoyed until there. Behind the simple corpses, Giants wights were providing a covering fire with their large bows. As they were dead, maintaining their long-ranged weapon in a perfect state had solely been neglected and too often the bows broke at the first attempt to nock an arrow. Alas, some giants had created weirdwood bows before dying, and these ones were infinitely more resistant to cold, snow and all the type of damage which could happen in this dreadful place. The defenders learnt painfully a giant archer was perfectly able to shoot a target on the top of the wall... and with one of their arrows the size of a scorpion bolt, anyone who had the bad fortune to receive the projectile was dead before having touched the ground. Bird and animal wights were also attacking now, putting the archers of the Night's Watch and the North under heavy contribution.

The worst part of the assault however, was not the new tactics employed the abominations of cold and ice. It was the size of the battle. Contrary to the first real engagement against the Wall, the White Walkers were not concentrating their attacks against Castle Black anymore. They were attacking the Wall everywhere, and in great numbers. The immediate direct consequence of this strategy was that every senior commander in charge of a Wall section could not release part of his reserves to help the nearby defenders to repulse the assault on their respective assaults.

Moreover, the walkover enjoyed by the humans was definitely over. As each hour passed, casualties began to mount, and in the blizzard the fight was going on and with monsters for opponents, any injury was frequently fatal. And more terrifying, each defender who fell had to be burnt in extreme urgency, no matter the cause of his death, least he rose again to fight for the White Walkers. In the middle of this fury of death, King Robb Stark and Lord Commander Denys Mallister sent countless ravens to the South, beginning to plan for the worst, as the Others had still not entered personally the battle. Any dead, no matter the age or the person concerned, had now to be burnt as a method of burial in the Kingdom of the North. The Wall sentinels had of course had days ago begun to execute these orders. With wights climbing by the hundreds the Wall and dispersed over an impressive distance, more and more undead were reaching the summit and had to be burnt on the top of the edifice.

That was not to say the wight forces of the Others were more successful in gaining a foothold on top of the Wall in this attack. Disciplined or not disciplined, wights stayed wights. No instinct of self-preservation when a massive stone was thrown in their direction, no impulse to roll in the snow when a Northman sent oil and a torch to burn it. To further emphasize the difficulty, the bird wights were really easy targets for any human archer having the barest skill in the subject, and the giants wights were massive targets, even in a snow storm the siege engines were able to reach them and put them out of the fight for several hours. There was also the fact that, magical defences or not, the Wall was still seven hundred feet high, and a human, dead or not, needed hours to climb such a fortification. Assuming no one was shooting at you the whole way, which was exactly the contrary at the moment. The wights' casualties were numbered in the thousands, but like in a nightmare, the losses didn't seem to matter and more climbed and arrived from the Haunted Forrest to take the place of the ones destroyed.

In this ocean of darkness, the leadership provided by the Northern and Night's Watch officers proved critical by giving enough morale to the common soldier to hold his post in the face of an enemy which was in many way worse than the tales and the legends. Without such mighty figures as the Lord of Last Hearth, 'Greatjon' Umber, the Lady of Bear Island, Maege Mormont and many others, it was very likely desertion would have thinned the ranks of the human army. At the head of these heroes, was the King in the North himself, Robb Stark, and his paramour the Wildling Queen Val. Tyrion Lannister was also a rallying figure, having managed the impressive feat to tear apart a giant wight with a modified scorpion bolt and earning the title 'Giantslayer'. Lord Denys Mallister, great commander of the Night's Watch, was also an example to all, taking the dangerous duty of burning all the corpses of foes and allies alike on the Wall, despite the obvious risks of the task. Tyrion Lannister's second in command of the Black Lions, a low-born warrior elevated to knighthood named Ser Bronn Blackwater made himself famous to organise competitions of who killed the biggest numbers of wights with each turn of hourglass. Tormund 'Giantsbane' was throwing back the enemies having managed to reach the Wall guardians piece by piece, stopping for moments the laughter of the Others. At each fort, nobles, men-at-arms or simple household followed their superiors in this resistance, and many sang _Wolf in the night_ , the _Victory of the Wolves_ , the _Lion is Dead Tonight_ or the _Bear and the Maiden Fair_ to give themselves courage and deafen the shrieks of the wights and the cold voices of the White Walkers in the air.

The problem was that the White Walkers had understood the same thing, beginning by the beings many believed to be the Night's King and Night's Queen of the old legends. By the time the equivalent of two days of almost continuous assault had passed (as the sun never came back, only hourglasses and horology mechanisms allowed some time estimations), there had been no major successes, although the massive onslaught had managed to tire and disperse the whole Northern, black brothers and wildlings forces on the complete length of the Wall.

It was time to send the true attack.

With absolutely no warning this time, the Haunting Forest emptied itself of thousands White Walkers in front of the garrison of the Greenguard fort, with of course the awful and dreaded ice spiders in the first lines leading the charge. For an instant, the men on top of the Wall didn't believe their very eyes. The army of the Others was a flashing blue light as it rushed to battle, with literally feet of snow being pushed towards the Wall to make improvised snow ladders. Tens of thousands wights accompanied them. Since the time of Joramun thousands of years ago, no one had seen such a display of death and malevolence taking the field. The Northmen defending Greenguard, mostly men-at-arms of House Ryswell, held their positions, King Robb Stark and the rest of the senior commanders having expected such a large assault for hours now. The small reserves of dragonglass were hurried out their caches, and messengers and torches signals were sent to alert the rest of the defenders the great assault had begun. The White Walkers were coming, but the heirs of Brandon the Builder were ready to receive them.

Alas the men and women manning the positions weren't. Hidden in the obscurity, half a dozen reptiles historians would later categorise as a breed of ice wyverns descended from the skies, unleashing an ice breath no human could survive. Roger Ryswell, heir of Lord Rodrik Ryswell, and more than one hundred men of the Rills perished in this single pass. The flying monsters did not emerge unscathed though. Surprised or not, the archers had had dragonglass arrows ready to launch, and four of the wyverns fell to their doom. But it had given the ice spiders time to begin their climb without being disrupted. And these monsters were quick to climb the Wall. Terribly quick.

If not for a surprise imagined of Tyrion Lannister, who using his influence of First Builder had proposed to prepare inflammable barrels loaded with dragonglass shards, it was certain the White Walkers would have destroyed the remnants of the Greenguard garrison. But thanks to a hero no one will ever know the name, two of the explosive barrels were launched moments before the first spider reached the corpses of the Ryswell men. The result was an indescribable massacre. The Eastwatch and Torches garrison, running to save their comrades, saw leagues away the blue dazzling lights of the Others disappear by the hundreds. One of the dragonglass barrels had exploded too soon, taking 'only' a dozen ice spiders and its terrible cavalrymen in death (although the ice shards and remains of the Others falling made countless ice spiders and Others fall from several hundred feet) but the other barrel had exploded in the core of the White Walkers infantry.

The Others, for all their savagery and cruelty, were taken aback by these losses for a few moments, having perhaps thought once the wyverns had taken the air they were going to be an unstoppable weapon. This hesitation gave the opportunity to the surviving Ryswell men to reorganise. It was good, because the enemy mounted again to the assault, and this time the White Walkers did not stop. Despite a few arrows and daggers of dragonglass left for the defenders, the Ryswell men tried to stop the ice tide with all the courage and the skill they had left. It wasn't enough.

A single warrior of the Others was far more dangerous than any single human warrior, and two or three dozen Others managed to finally reach the summit of the fortification with their spiders, the rest of the army still being in the process of ascending. A ferocious and desperate fight began, the humans being shredded everywhere by the ice blades. It was only the massive reinforcements of Eastwatch, Torches, Long Barrow and Rimegate which allowed the human soldiers to turn the tide, along with the reserves of dragonglass. Led by Jon Snow, Ser Donnel Locke, Meera Reed, Cotter Pyke and many others famous Northern and black brothers, the Wall protectors hammered the Others having managed to take a hold over this small section of the fortifications. After more than one hour of atrocities, fire and killing, the Others finally broke and retreated. The number of casualties was horrific on the other hand: of the four hundred plus Ryswell men defending Greenguard, three-fourths were dead, and it was doubtful any of the survivors would be in any shape to fight another day, such was the injuries and the traumatism they had endured. Two hundred more men coming from Torches and Eastwatch had also fallen and had to be burnt.

But the worst was still to come. At approximately the moment the assault on Greenguard faltered, the Night's Queen launched her personal assault on the section of the Wall defended by the Nightfort bastion.

This time, not only three dozen ice wyverns participated into the aerial bombardment with their frozen breaths, but the Night's Queen herself launched her dragon as well as another (although the second big monster was a lot smaller than the one mounted by the leader of the White Walkers), and there was of course thousands of sacrificed wights taking the brunt of the arrows and the rest of the projectiles of the defenders. As the Nightfort had been perhaps the worst rebuilt castle due to his sinister reputation, it was no wonder its war defences were perhaps the weakest of all the human citadels along the Wall. Ser Lyle Crakehall and his entire garrison of two hundred and fifty black brothers and Northerners had not a chance to win against this inferno of ice and death. Three wyverns fell dead on their troops below, but about half of the Nightfort garrison perished, including Ser Lyle.

Of course, the now deceased sentinels had had the time to alert the rest of the Wall they were under a massive assault, and the garrisons of Icemark and Deep Lake answered, the fearsome Greatjon Umber racing at their head. But their arrival only slowed down the bleeding. Ice spiders and White Walkers had passed the Wall. The melee was total at the top of the edifice. And minute after minute, it became clear it was not enough. The human defenders were losing ground. The White Walkers were killing machines, and there was simply not enough dragonglass to defeat them. Greatjon Umber had to send messengers requesting reinforcements to his King at Castle Black.

To the astonishment of every participant in this slaughter, hundreds of the Night's Watch brothers emerged from the blizzard to assault the White Walkers faster than everyone had believed possible. King Robb Stark and Lord Commander Denys Mallister had understood the danger, and released all their reserves to contain the terrible onslaught. Now, Lord Denys Mallister, Tyrion Lannister, Ser Bronn Blackwater and countless other soldiers charged the ranks of the surprised ice warriors. The fury and the rage of the black brothers and the Northerners were so great, dozens of White Walkers and countless wights were hurled back from the Wall. The corpse of every enemy who fell was burned, and dragonglass projectiles and daggers reaped a toll in blood and ice over the ice abominations. For an instant, everyone, from the lowest soldier to the Lord Commander, living believed victory was still possible. They were wrong.

While nearly everyone of the Night's Watch had forgotten of its existence, there had still been a magical passage in the ruins of the Nightfort, allowing passage on the other side of the Wall. Made of an old white weirwood face, the passage could only open when someone living pronounced the oaths of the Night's Watch. The humans had almost forgotten his existence. The Night's Queen had not. In a terrible command, around fifty White Walkers took position around a strange machine, emanating a sinister blue light and of a structure looking like countless mirrors fixed together. How it worked was a mystery which has baffled every human ever since. What it did was no mystery. A ray of blue light emerged from the engine and smashed the gate in a shriek which sounded like the apocalypse and the Seven Hells gathered in one.

The Night's Watch and the rest of the humans rushed to exterminate the rest of the White Walkers present on the Wall, bringing all their archers with the obsidian arrows to stop them. But they were too late. Only three of the fifty plus Others had been killed, when the weirwood face, unable to support the beam of ice magic, exploded in multiple fragments. A massive crack, visible to all, appeared along the complete height of the Wall. The defenders, realising the peril they were walking upon, rushed to distance themselves from the growing fissure. And then the dragons and the wyverns came back in a monumental roar sounding like the end of the world, bringing a storm of snow and ice with them.

About everyone fled save one. Tyrion Lannister, in this moment of chaos and panic, stayed at his post and unleashed a scorpion bolt with a dragonglass point from the last siege engine still in a state of working. The shoot was magnificent, taking the small ice dragon in the right eye. A killing shot if there ever was one. The dragon slammed into the Wall in his agony throes, trying to kill his murderer with the last sparks of his breath. Before thousand of horrified humans, Tyrion Lannister screamed the now famous "HEAR ME ROAR!" in front of the assembled Night's Watch, wildlings, Northerners and White Walkers. And then, he and the dying ice dragon were buried under the thousands of tons in ice and snow from the collapsing part of the Wall.

Where had once been the Nightfort and a neglected portion of the great fortification built by King Brandon Stark, First of the Name, was now a massive gap where nothing moved. For half a minute, not a noise was made from the humans or the Others, as if no one believed what had just happened. The moment of silence didn't last. In a thunderous scream of triumph, the wight army of the Others which had survived the collapse advanced in an endless wave nothing which seemed to stop. And for the first time in a thousand years, the ancestral horns were sounded four times by the black brothers and their allies.

From the Shadow Tower to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, a scream mounted in the air, carried by the Winds of Winter, a scream no one in a thousand generations had expected to hear in his lifetime.

"BREACH! BREACH IN THE WALL!"


	63. Broken Ambitions

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Sunspear or any of the Dornish customs.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for the review.

QueenAryaI: Yes, I thought Tyrion's death had to be really epic...

melubarv: Well Bran marched North way later than in the books, so he hasn't reached the Children yet. But he does his best, poor boy.

And yes, some characters are going to be venerated when this war is over. Sometimes it will even be justified. As for Stannis, he has to deal with the mess Euron did in the Reach.

X59: Alas Stannis is too far to arrive now. The North is going to have to hold the (broken) Wall with what they have. Glad the chapter surprised you, I had planned it since a long time.

Matt Quinn: It's Westeros. There's always a disaster brewing when things are looking up.

Paul: I decided to keep the same two Kingsguards who died at Loras' hands, because I needed Crane to rally the Florent and Reach men at Bitterbridge, a task Royce wouldn't have been able to do given his Vale family.

Concerning the Sons of the Harpy, the problem is that Daenerys supporters took down every man and woman they had loyalty doubts upon. A lot of them were undoubtedly Harpy supporters. But some were lying low and did not attract attention.

Yes Tyrion died a hero, I had dropped hints here and there. Denys Mallister as Lord Commander could not do better given the disastrous situation he inherited from his predecessors. Future historians will report him as a brave man, who did what he could to save a desperate situation.

Lord Velaryon is dead, but his fate was a bit different than canon: he was captured after the first battle of King's Landing and died when everyone tried to murder each other in the Red Keep, moments before the capital went down in flames. Galbart Glover is still alive, but stayed with the main army while his brother was given an independent command. I chose deliberately to shorten Bronn's knightly name, it is not like he is a major noble.

And yes there is still (at least) an ice dragon in play, and with a massive breach in the Wall, things are looking dire. But now, let's see how go things in the South...

 **Broken Ambitions**

 **The South musters**

 _"The Wall asks for help, and the South will answer."_ King Stannis Baratheon, 300AC.

 _"But before we will send to Hell screaming every Ironborn we catch."_ Anonymous Reach soldier, 300AC.

 _"The Dornish, they say, take great pride in having different succession laws from the rest of the Seven Kingdoms. Why is that so they discard them at the first opportunity?"_ King Stannis Baratheon, 300AC.

 _"When the trumpets sound again, I will attack!"_ Ser Justin Massey, 300AC.

 _"I guess being Prince of Dorne allows you to ignore morality. Lucky man!"_ Ser Justin Massey, entering the Lord's quarters at Longtable, 300AC.

When the last Ironborn had perished upon the battlefield which had become Highgarden, the Dornish and Reach nobles, men-at-arms and camp followers swore in the next hours fealty to King Stannis Baratheon. Partly this change was dictated by the sheer shock provoked by the cataclysm of destruction brought by the King of Pirates Euron III Greyjoy. Lord Willas Tyrell and his surviving bannersmen, who had once been led by Lord Mace Tyrell assuring them victory against the Ironborn was a done-deal, were forced to recognise that without Dornish and Stormlands intervention, they very well could have lost the battle...and assisted to a terrible future where the Crow's Eye ravaged the rest of the Reach without anyone in measure to stop him. In a more cold-hearted view, King Stannis was now the only king in the vicinity left for House Tyrell or any Reach lord to bow to. Aegon VI was a corpse, Renly, Joffrey and Tommen Baratheon were long dead and King Robb Stark was fighting on the Wall. That did not mean the negotiators of Highgarden and Oldtown did not manage to gain some advantages with their new monarch. First, the war fleet of Lord Garlan Tyrell and close to 4000 Reach infantry would be reserved to liberate the lost lands of the Reach and dealt in a permanent manner with the Ironborn problem. As the ruins of the Oldflowers' keep had already been brought under Tyrell's control, everyone knew very well the initial target was the fallen Shield Islands, with the Iron Islands next on the list. Nevertheless, with King Stannis bringing the new frontier between the Reach and the Stormlands to a line just west of a border Bitterbridge-Longtable-Ashford, the Lord Paramount of the Reach had lost a vast amount of territory, to say nothing of the blow suffered to his authority. Moreover, both branches of Houses Fossoway who had been formally declared attainted were reinstated as their respective positions of Lords of Cider Hall and New Barrel. It is one of the justifications historians use today anyway to explain the planned marriage between Lady Margaery Tyrell and King Stannis Baratheon. Well this and the liberation of Ser Loras Tyrell from Storm's End dungeons (though the Knight of Flowers threw a tantrum when his formers captors informed him gleefully of the conditions of his liberation). Still, many knights having rallied to the cadet brother of Robert Baratheon believed the Reach emerged from this talks with some hope of recovering in the near -future.

For Dorne, the turn taken by this conflict had nothing pleasant at all. When the man proclaimed to be Aegon VI had sailed in Planky Town and been crowned in Sunspear, many lords and nobles of the most southernmost Westerosi kingdom had hoped regaining the prominence they had enjoyed during the reign of Daeron II at a low price in gold and men. The Battle who was darkly sung as the Doom of Kings had put an end to that hope, already in danger from the failure of the campaign in the Stormlands. Lord Dagos Manwoody, Lord Quentyn Qorgyle and Lord Franklyn Fowler had perished during that bloodbath, the first two by the fire of Dreadwing and the third in the terrible final melee with the Ironborn reavers. As a result, it was Lord Anders Yronwood who formally surrendered the surviving Dornish forces to King Stannis Baratheon after the Crow's Eye body was butchered and burnt.

Unfortunately for the men of the desert, the Red Mountains and Sunspear, the bad news were just about to start. First, Lord Titus Pike had fled the battlefield of Highgarden with about eight hundred Reach and Dornish men who had not wanted to bend the knee to King Stannis, only to reach Starpike and realise the castle had opened its gates to Lord Rolland Caron, news of Aegon VI's death having preceded them by a good fortnight. House Vyrwel having lost its lord in the last battle, there was no option left to Lord Peake but to launch assault to reconquer his home from the Stormlanders. It was not an act which made the unanimity among the runaway men formerly sworn to the Targaryen cause, but Lord Peake had the support of the infamous Gerold 'Darkstar' Dayne in this endeavour. As a result, the Peake forces tried to storm their own castle three times with an absence of tactics which made future generals completely baffled. Rolland Storm capabilities aside, it was estimated even a poor commander would have managed to defend Starpike when the opponent's only strategy was to rush at the gate with an improvised ram. After six hours of assault, it was finally over and the Dornish-Reach survivors surrendered as Rolland Storm and thirty cavalrymen sallied out the citadel. Lord Titus Peake had died in the third assault from a rock which bashed his skull, as did his two sons. Ser Gerold Dayne had been stabbed in the back by one of his men when he ordered them to launch a new assault on the Caron positions, and the rest of the knights and professional men-at-arms were lying dead at the walls of Starpike or fleeing for their lives. The Battle of Peake's Folly, as it became known afterwards, cost three hundred and eighty men to the now definitely collapsing Targaryen cause. Caron losses were less than twenty. Only a sixteen-year old daughter of the deceased Lord Titus named Cerenna Peake was alive now to carry the name, proof of the terrible casualties taken by the Marcher Lords.

It was only the first blow of a long series. At the fortress of Blackhaven, conquered and sacked by Prince Oberyn Martell in the first steps of the Dornish invasion in the Stormlands, the Wyl infantry had proven extremely neglectful. Most of the garrison had been more busy settling centuries old feuds with the knights and lords of the area by drinking all their alcohol and raping the maximum of women rather than mounting guard, and this despite the increasing dangerous raids of the Stormlands soldiers having escaped annihilation. How bad an idea it was, the Wyl soldiers discovered it when Lord Creighton Dondarrion at the head of the 'Thunder Brotherhood' launched a daring assault on his former home at night. Surprised in their beds or wherever they had finished their evenings of debauchery, the Dornish were unable to mount an efficient resistance, or to be honest to wake in time before it was all over. And given the atrocities done against their families, no warrior of the victorious side was really in the mood for any mercy. Lord Olyvar Wyl and two hundred of his men were butchered on the spot by Dondarrion and his Brotherhood, and their corpses were left at the mercy of the vultures.

The litany of defeat continued when Lord Edric Dayne, who had returned from the Riverlands where he had fought under the banner of Beric Dondarrion, attacked High Hermitage, Gerold 'Darkstar' Dayne having profited from his absence to start activities which largely broke the limit between disobedience and treason, like killing Starfall tax collectors. With its lord and the military force busy dying at Starpike, High Hermitage fell barely in a whisper and Lord Edric found plenty of evidence in Darkstar quarters of treasonous and illicit activities, enough to declare him an outlaw (news of his death had not yet reached the Torrentine) and retake its lands for House Dayne of Starfall. Lady Allyria Dayne sending a raven to Storm's End proclaiming their allegiance to King Stannis Baratheon was simply one more defeat for House Martell.

In other circumstances, such news would have taken the Prince of Dorne's utmost attention. Alas, at this moment of the year Prince Doran Martell had other preoccupations. Like stopping the naval assaults of Admiral Davos Seaworth on the coasts of Dorne. After the battle which had seen nearly the entire strength owned by the Golden Company and Dorne be sunk, Admiral Davos Seaworth had rapidly captured Ghaston Grey, the prison-island Dorne used for its criminals instead of sending them to the Wall. But whereas many Dornish had expected the fleet of Stannis Baratheon to stop their incursions in their waters when the last hulls of the Dornish navy had sunk to the bottom of the sea taking the same name, this reality had failed to manifest itself. The former Kingsguard Balon Swann in command, ten war galleys belonging to House Swann and Baratheon had made an amphibious assault on the castle of the Tor and captured it, taking prisoner the heiress Myria Jordayne.

And then came the news of Longtable. There, the siege of the ancestral home of House Merryweather had increasingly taken the allure of a joke. At irregular moments of the morning, afternoon, evening and night, Ser Justin Massey was ordering his troops to sound the trumpets, and sent every time a messenger to the Prince of Dorne asking for his surrender. Prince Oberyn Martell, of course, answered by the negative to each of these demands. The Stormlands and Reach troops encircling Longtable lacked trebuchets and ballista, having only a few dozen light catapults and scorpions which caused little damage to the stone walls. Besides, the Viper of Dorne had far more pleasurable hobbies. To the astonishment and the laughter of many belligerents, Oberyn Martell expulsed lord Orton Merryweather from his own home twenty days after the beginning of the siege, the official reason claimed being the Lord of Longtable's preparing an uprising to surrender the fortress. Lord Orton however protested, swearing he intended nothing of the sort and as no Merryweather soldier was thrown out of the castle with their former master, events proved Lord Orton right. Rumours spread by mysterious means, telling Prince Oberyn had evinced the Lord to sleep with his wife Taena of Myr.

The soldiers of King Stannis Baratheon had the opportunity to rapidly verify the rumours in question. As it happened, Ser Justin Massey hadn't made the trumpets sound night and day by pure vanity, but rather to make sure the noise of the smallfolk building the tunnel passing under the outer walls of Longtable was not heard. About twenty days after the moment Aegon VI had perished, the tunnel was finally done and the warriors of Ser Richard Horpe and Justin Massey profited from the darkness to enter Longtable by this non-conventional method. The Merryweather and the Dornish were numerous inside Longtable, approximately 4 000, but no one had been prepared for the eventuality of a couple hundred of men storming their posts from the inside and charging the defenders of the main gate. All the while Ser Justin Massey sounded the trumpets... and ordered the assault to begin, betting his opponents would believe it to be another parley offer. The defenders of Longtable, not the most alert of men in any case, were rapidly overwhelmed; a fact made sure by the fact the gate was opened by the tunnel invaders within the first ten minutes. Nymeria Sand tried to organise the resistance, but was captured after slaying three men, an issue unavoidable as she was one of the few persons who didn't throw their weapons to the ground when they saw the enemy storming the keep. As for Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper was captured by Justin Massey in the bed of Taena of Myr, the noise made by their lovemaking having apparently deafening all the others (reliable witnesses confirmed that aside Oberyn and the unfaithful Lady, three other women were present in the room giving a whole new level to the term orgy). The rumours discussed thoroughly in the army's camp had not been that ridiculous after all.

In Dorne on the other hand, no one had the heart to laugh at the mention of the Viper sexual prowess outweighing his tactical abilities. With the defeat of Longtable, not only all the Dornish forces had officially surrendered or be defeated, but King Stannis Baratheon had just been handed more hostages from House Martell and other Noble Houses, one of the most high-born being Lord Daeron Vaith, Lord of the Red Dunes. Dorne had lost all its available military forces, their best commanders were dead or prisoner, the coffers had been significantly emptied to finance Aegon VI's audacious war plans, the warships they had had were destroyed and major bannersmen were openly discussing siding with King Stannis for the spoils. At the court of Sunspear, those in the know believed Dorne had finally reached the bottom of the disasters. They were wrong.

Three days after the raven informing the latest disaster at Longtable had arrived, Prince Doran Martell never woke up on the morning, passing away peacefully in his sleep. No one was really surprised by his death, Prince Doran having suffered from a very bad health half of his life, but this event could not have happened at a worst time. Arianne Martell, who by Dornish succession laws was the new Princess of Dorne, was now pregnant and prisoner of King Stannis, travelling to Storm's End under heavy guard. Quentyn Martell, her cadet brother, was with Daenerys Targaryen's army and believed missing or dead due to the lengthy time he had not given any signs of life. As a result, the way was completely free for Trystane Martell, Doran's second son, to take the title of Prince of Dorne, his elder sister having been largely sidelined by her decision to support the invasion of Stormlands and the Reach. To add another more incentive to this priceless opportunity, several attempts with poison had been made by one the elders bastard daughters of Prince Oberyn Martell, Tyene Sand, to eliminate Princess Myrcella Baratheon. Needless to say, as the betrothed to the Lady in question, Trystane Martell didn't receive these news very well. Tyene Sand was imprisoned in the Lance Tower, and Trystane Martell married Princess Myrcella Baratheon in front the whole population of Sunspear, becoming the new Prince of Dorne.

The Dornish lords marching northwards with Stannis Baratheon were stunned by this new development, but to Princess Arianne Martell's consternation, many of the common soldier and influential knights revealed themselves not rebellious at the idea of her second brother ruling Sunspear. In fact, the person who protested the most against this take-over was King Stannis Baratheon, which was definitely an ironic turn (though it should be mentioned it was due to Stannis devotion to the laws of succession). However, when minor bannersmen tried to talk the Storm King to launch a full campaign against Dorne, they were rapidly evicted from the royal tent. The mind of Stannis Baratheon was now entirely turned towards the upcoming campaign against the Others, understandable as the ravens and the messengers coming from the North were not merely bad, but now outright disastrous.

The marriage at Bitterbridge between Margaery Tyrell and the Baratheon monarch thus was a simple and fast affair, with the highlights of the day being the deep modifications in the structure of the informally named 'Storm Kingdom'. Ser Richard Horpe would be the new Hand, main advisor and Regent of Princess Shireen should the king not come back, and would go with Stannis' new wife to Storm's End. Ormund Wylde having been left behind to keep an eye on Highgarden and Rolland Caron on the Marches, King Stannis would now march to war with Ser Donnel Swann and Ser Justin Massey as main subordinate commanders. Admiral Davos Seaworth was officially named Master of Ships, with the order to shift the hulls under his command northwards as rumours of a massive Braavosi naval campaign reached everyone's ears. Andrew Estermont became Master of Coin, and Devan Seaworth became Lord of Longtable for having saved the life of Stannis against Euron Greyjoy. But as the army now approached the ruins of King's Landing, no one was in the mood to laugh anymore. Endless columns of birds rushed southwards in the sky, a move similar being made on the ground by countless animals. The sun was no more, and braving the snows of a deep winter the Southern warriors prepared for the campaign of their lifetimes. Overall 25 000 men had been mustered and equipped in all haste, hoping they would arrive in time to make a difference against the Great Enemy...


	64. Civil War

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Volantis or its slavery system.

 **Warning:** Thanks to a few suggestions of X59, I decided to change the part where I answers reviews to a Questions/Answers. Don't hesitate to give me your opinion on it.

Great thanks for X59, raw666, Master of Dragons God, Paul and Eduard Kassel for their reviews.

Q: Will Loras cause problems within the Storm Kingdom or will his family keep him in line?

A: Margaery, Willas and Olenna are going to try keeping Loras in line, but he is still going to cause problems. His stay in the dungeons of Storm's End has not improved the flaws of his behaviour.

Q: Will Quentyn accept it when he ends up coming back to Dorne?

A: Definitely not. Quentyn may be not the most martial-inclined Dornish in existence, but he will not tolerate his younger brother trying to usurp the throne of Dorne from his sister. That and it's Daenerys who will give him his marching orders in the future.

Q: Is Dorne independent or has Trystane bent knee to Stannis and joined the Storm Kingdom?

A: The lords who bent the knee to Trystane are still independent for now. Joining Stannis when Myrcella has just been recognised as Princess of Dorne is a risky move

Q: How did Myrcella handle the loss of her family?

A: Except for Tommen who she genuinely mourned, Myrcella didn't shed many tears for the rest of her family. Her supposed parents were always distant figures, the Lannisters present at court were not very friendly to her and Joffrey enjoyed tormenting his younger siblings. Tyrion will be mourned when news of his death will arrive in the South. The rest, she was not really close to them to cry for their demises.

Q: How close we are to the end?

A: We still have at least twenty chapters before the end of this conflict. Emphasis on at least, because for a strange reason I keep having ideas who give birth to new chapters...

Q: What happened to Varys?

A: Varys fled eastwards at the end of the battle when Stannis victory became evident. Right now, he crosses the Narrow Sea to regroup his financial and information resources at Pentos.

 **Civil War**

 **The Battle of Volantis Part I**

 _"Kill them all, and let R'hllor sort them out."_ Triarch Belicho Staegone, 300AC.

 _"No one told me we had to fight hundreds of wizards! Forget the pay and get the Hell out of here!"_ Anonymous sellsword on the assault of the Temple of the Lord of Light, 300AC.

 _"R'hllor has spoken: the sacred war has begun and Azor Ahai approaches. Kill the heretics!"_ High Priest Benerro, 300AC.

 _"Behind these black walls, we will resist. And then they will die."_ Triarch Malaquo Maegyr, 300AC.

The elections of the Triarchs in 300AC were a monumental shock for those who studied the Volantene politics. For the first time in three centuries, the unbroken domination of the Elephant Party had been decisively beaten. The city's incumbent Triarchs Malaquo Maegyr of the Tiger Party and Nyessos Vhassar of the Elephant Party were re-elected without surprise, but the third, Doniphos Paenymion failed in this endeavour. He was replaced by Belicho Staegone of the Tiger Party, a change which put the military faction of Volantis in command for the first time in years.

After ten days of election, which saw so much corruption, bribery and use of pleasure slaves it was remembered as a period of pure decadence by the Volantene themselves, the city of Volantis was drunk of power and promises. Soldiers and merchants were dancing together in the street, believing the upcoming war against Daenerys Targaryen and Meereen would allow an unprecedented amount of gold, silver, slaves and gems to flow in their coffers when the Mother of Dragons and her armies were going to be annihilated by the Slavers Coalition.

The reality was a bit less exalting. To say the truth, since the Doom of Valyria Volantis was declining in power. The descendants of Old Blood, men and women who could trace their ancestry back to the dragonlords of Valyria married only between each other, cutting themselves from the rest of the free population. The persons who were born free and had no slave ancestry diminished year after year, as a result of the ruinous policies made by the Elephant Party. The lower free classes and the middle classes were progressively strangled by the rule of men sitting inside the Black Walls who didn't have a single thought about them. The number of slaves was rising. The concurrence in goods, trade ships, slaves, glass and tools from Braavos, Lys, Myr and Tyrosh was growing more and more ferocious. Volantis and its trade companies were losing astounding amount of their 'honor' coins, and as galling as the Elephants had to admit it, sacking the cities of Slaver's Bay might very well be their only chance of slowing down the economic collapse threatening their interests.

What the scions of the Old Blood had never expected in their worst nightmares was for their mighty fleet sent eastwards to be decisively destroyed in a single engagement. Some losses had been estimated unavoidable in the course of the campaign, of course. Announcing that over three hundred plus war galleys had been sunk for literally no gain had not been part of the plan. As the first transports and warships limped back in the huge harbour of Volantis, everyone in the city knew something terrible had just happened. In a matter of hours, thousand of rumours spread thorough the harbour, the Black Walls, the merchant quarters and the slave habitations. Some were completely ridiculous, other bore more rational part of the truth. All had in common one thing, nevertheless. The grand fleet of Volantis, one of the largest this world had ever seen, had suffered a colossal defeat.

Inside the Black Walls, the senior captains having managed to return home, gave their version of events, and to say it was one where the slaves and the Red Priests were demonised was an understatement of the highest order. Triarch Belicho Staegone did not waste any time to act. With the tacit support of his two colleagues, the newly-elevated Triarch mustered three sellsword companies known for their ruthlessness: the Orange Warriors, the Spears of Valysar and the Rhoynar Survivors, and ordered them to launch a pre-emptive decapitation strike on the Temple of the Lord of the Light. No member of the Tiger and the Elephant Parties was under any illusion that the civil war which had smouldered for so long could be avoided anymore. The massive mutinies having decimated the Volantene fleet showed it was way too late to obtain such a miracle. But if the 6000 soldiers sent to the attack could kill Benerro the High Priest of R'hllor, then it would be still possible to divide the slave movement and to crush this rebellion before the arrival of the Ironborn and Daenerys Targaryen invasion forces.

The problem was that the Triarchs had no idea how corrupt their entire society had become. How much humiliations, anger, and hate they had inflicted to their own citizens. Plenty of women inside the Black Walls outright hated their husbands wallowing in orgies where non-nubile and nubile slave girls played the first roles. It had also been three hundred years a woman had been elevated to the Triarch rank. Plenty of Valyrian descendants, ruined by their competitors, had had enough of this system which fed itself of their miseries and weaknesses. To sum it all, there were dozens of information networks inside the Black Walls, and thousand more outside in Volantis proper. High Priest Benerro was likely informed of Staegon's order less than two hours after it was given. Perhaps less.

The Temple of the Lord of Light was protected by its army of slave soldiers known as the Fiery Hand, and the warning gave the time to Benerro to evacuate thousands of slaves and freedmen unable or unwilling to fight and retrench itself in the vast edifice, which was a mass of buttresses, bridges, towers and domes three times bigger than the destroyed Sept of Baelor once having illuminated King's Landing. When the sellswords hired by the Triarchs launched their attack, what should have been a one-sided purge became a butchery of proportions never seen in the eldest daughter of the Valyrian Freehold. The generals in command of the defences of Volantis had been careful enough to brief the sellswords of the defences of the great temple, but it had been on a worst-case scenario basis. Surprise was to be the greatest strength of the assault force, a plan logical if one imagined the possibility of fighting and massacring thousands of fanatics having sworn to be the sword of R'hllor in this world and beyond.

The Orange Warriors realised in the first instants Triarch Staegon's initiative had never had a chance to succeed when scorpions which had been carefully hidden in the towers launched their projectiles. After this show of force, the battle was on. The veterans of the Spears of Valysar and the two other sellsword companies had murdered their way through dozens of battlefields in the Disputed Lands. They were battle-hardened fighters, often ending their military operations with blood and corpses to their ankles. But they had never fought opponents like the Fiery Hand. The slave soldiers knew R'hllor was with them, and they defended His temple, which was also their home and those of their families. All the defenders cared was sending the maximum number of enemies into the realms of death before they perished. Priests of R'hllor, high and low, were to their side, sending fire balls and fighting with magical blades which tore open the heaviest cuirasses, helmets and shields. Several Fiery warriors received lethal wounds from their enemies, fell to the ground...only to rise again, their wounds fuming of fire and shadow and throw themselves into battle with renewed ferocity.

It was hard to blame the sellswords who fled the battlefield. Since the fall of the Freehold, magical phenomena were rarely seen in the light of the day, and never with this sort of power in a full-scaled battle. A huge fireball exploding in the middle of the Rhoynar Survivors officers also generated untold confusion. By the time the first assault had failed five hours after the initial attack went on, the three companies of sellswords had lost roughly half of their complements, 3 000 men, all dead because the servants of R'hllor were of the opinion a good enemy of their Faith was a dead man. The R'hllorites defenders had not emerged unscathed, but most of their casualties were in the Fiery Guard's ranks not in their priests, who took turn to use magical attacks against the swords and spears of the mercenaries.

To say Triarch Belicho Staegone and his two co-rulers took the news well would be greatly stretching the truth. The three men governing Volantis and the lower part of the Rhoyne had believed this operation would cut the head of the threat led by the Red Priests, but now Benerro had chosen to resist militarily to their brutal and heavy-handed actions. After a meeting which lasted a few hours, an extraordinary feat for the inefficient and corrupt administration of Volantis where decisions could wait days or weeks to be taken, the Triarchs ordered five other sellsword companies less than a week's travel away from their city to come and burn the Temple of R'hllor. The scions of Old Valyria had decided that because their hammer had failed to smash the threat, to gather a bigger one and deal with the problem permanently. In the mean time, the survivors of the first three sellsword companies and the Tiger soldiers of the city's watch would surround and isolate the temple.

It was obvious this strategy was logical on a map posed in one of the magnificent palatial tables of the Volantis nobles, but completely useless on reality. While the Fiery Guard and the sellswords did their very best to exterminate each other, the followers of R'hllor who had evacuated the Temple before the assault started spread the news and gathered their sympathisers. And the religion of the Red God had a lot of them in the slave population, which by a pure coincidence, numbered about sixty percent of the total population of Volantis. Not that the religion of R'hllor limited itself to slaves. They were plenty of former slaves and poor Freedmen who wanted a chance to have a better life, one where the parasites called the Triarchs and the descendants of Valyrian blood had no place to exist. The City's Watch had many R'hllorites in it. The Merchant's House had been thoroughly infiltrated by enemy agents, one of the most infamous being the Widow of the Waterfront, informing the Red Priests of any hostile gestures and moves. All these tens thousands of men and women were now rushing in action to participate in the long-awaited insurrection to free Volantis from tyranny forever.

With such an overwhelming advantage in numbers, the Volantis loyalists would have been hard-pressed to hold the city. With corruption, bribery and incompetence having spread so widely, the men staying loyal to the Triarchy were literally cut down without much chance of victory. Many of the Volantene Freedmen were competent, skilled in tactics and swordsmanship. But what good did it do when the general in question found his troops betraying him and a horde of slaves in fury slamming straight-on the last troops who had remained loyal? When High Priest Benerro gave the order to begin the rebellion, Volantis exploded in flames, blood and steel. Grazdan mo Eraz, last of the Wise Masters of Yunkai, was thrown of his elephant by an arrow in his guts and was dragged by his animal out of control on an entire street's length, and he was far from the only noble of note to die.

The insurrection organised by the Red Priests could hardly be named a triumph, though. Many sellsword companies and battalions of Volantene guards who should have turned traitor stood with the Triarchs when the moment came to draw the weapons. The reason of this was not difficult to understand. Many of the slaves and Freedmen had enjoyed hearing Daenerys Targaryen efforts to abolish the slavery. But the hundreds of thousands who had died in the naval carnage of the Gulf of Grief had been parents, friends, lovers. Whether they had died by dragonfire, the spears of their own comrades, or the swords of their former masters was immaterial. Suddenly, overthrowing the old order was not the nice thing to do anymore, and the Red Priests extreme followers, screaming and butchering their way with torches and daggers in red robes, were providing a lot of reasons not to join. On a tactical view, it translated in the Volantene loyalists holding the Long Bridge, the Black Walls, the war fleet (or what remained of it) at anchor and many armouries and garrisons inside the city. It was not much, but all those loyalists passed the initial phases of the rebellion had ample supplies, large stock of weapons, and were extremely motivated to win. The mob showing the head of their friends on pikes may have had some reason with it.

Of course, the loyalists may have had the qualitative advantage, the discipline and the siege weapons, in particular the large trebuchets and ballista in place on the top of the Black Walls, but the Red Priests had simply an astonishing number of bodies to throw at each point of resistance. Galvanised by the speeches of the Red Priests promising them salvation and a life of paradise, band of thousands fanatics roamed the streets, killing anyone who might get between them and the miracles of R'hllor. One by one the garrisons fell, although thousands of rebel slaves and guardsmen who had turned their cloak perished to eradicate each stronghold. The Long Bridge, a work so titanic it was impossible to defend, saw its loyalists been torn apart as two armies of rebels charged from each side.

All told, the First Part of the Battle of Volantis lasted two days and while High Priest Benerro and his followers emerged victorious, it was hard to find motives of satisfaction. A massive army of sellswords and Volantene tiger troops having stayed loyal were marching at forced speed to 'liberate' the city from the north. Volantis was more a mass grave than a city. The fleet, despite important losses, was now blockading the city from the sea. And the Black Walls, where so many of Volantis rulers lived, still resisted. Massive siege engines launched enflamed projectiles. Enchanted weapons like swords and spears were emerging again from old armouries, as magic made them again redoubtable. The scions of the Old Blood had no compunction anymore not to use poison and diseases to thin the ranks of the insurrection, and the R'hllor fanatics did not learn any tactics other than storming a position, no matter the cost. Alas, the magic of the Red Priests revealed itself useless against the Black Walls and a siege assault was a military art the slaves ignored all the rules. The fires inside Volantis grew more and more out of control, and the despair of the men and women trapped inside this vision of the Seven Hells was a sight terrible to behold. Benerro and his followers had seized Volantis, but their triumph was going to be their funeral pyre.

There was only one path salvation: sally out of the city, where an army close to 30 000 in numbers was waiting for them. It promised to be a slaughter, as Red Priests and escaped slaves were definitely not the type of shock troops needed to fight on a conventional battlefield. Unfortunately, the alternatives were worse, and so close to three hundreds thousands insurgents gathered to form an epic charge which promised to be their last. But before the charge could be sounded, a terrible noise resonated to the heavens. A noise at the same time beautiful and terrible, symbolising the best and the worst of these human times. It was a dragon's roar of challenge...


	65. Blood of Liberty

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Volantis, the dragons or the magic of the Red Priests.

Thanks again for the reviews of Matt Quinn, X59, Master of Dragons God and Paul.

Q: What happened to Lord Estermont to make Horpe hand of the king instead?

A: Simply Stannis thought Horpe would be more competent than Estermont was at this job. Lord Estermont is still alive, he has just been given back a minor army command for the next campaign.

Q: Are Quentyn and Victarion ever going to cross swords in this story?

A: No. Absolutely not. First, unless Victarion is poisoned, miss both of his arms and has been pierced by many arrows, Quentyn will not last second against such a monster. Secondly, Dornish methods of fighting work very badly on an armoured opponent like the Lord Captain unless you're an expert with a spear and your enemy is a mindless brute. For further references, see the duel of canon Oberyn versus the Mountain. Thirdly, it is not in Quentyn's temperament to lead from the frontlines. And Daenerys may not want to take the risk of losing the only leverage she has on Dorne.

Q: Did Grazdan hear what happened to Yunkai before dying?

A: Unfortunately not. No Volantene warship which came back was near Yunkai when it went in flames.

Q: I never really forgave Quentyn for taking part in the Sack of Astapor.

A: To be fair, it was not like he had exactly the choice, isn't it? And given the thousands of sellswords and Essossi troops mustered for the occasion, his refusal to massacre and sack would not have made any differences at the end of the day.

Q: Which dragon has arrived?

A: Answer in this chapter (large grin)!

Q: Will you continue using the same format of Q&A?

A: Perhaps, I'm using it for this chapter and will await the comments and reviews. In one week, I will decide whether or not I revert to the more classic form of answers.

 **Blood of Liberty**

 **The Battle of Volantis Part II**

 _"Come not between the dragon and his wrath!"_ Volantene proverb, attributed to the bard Wyllyr Lakespyr, 300AC.

 _"We must scrupulously guard the rights of all of our citizens, no matter their backgrounds. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred is a wedge designed to attack our Valyrian civilisation."_ Triarch Saena Lavenyr, 300AC.

 _"This is not over! We will fight them on the walls, we will murder them in the streets, we will ambush them in the houses and the temples, we will end them on the beaches! Our cause is just, R'hllor is with us and we will never surrender!"_ Scream of defiance attributed to High Priest Benerro, 300AC.

Despite being at its zenith, the sun over Volantis was darkened by the uncontrollable fires raging in the city. As such, the approach of the dragon coming from the south had been relatively unseen by all the belligerents. The wind was flowing from northwards, the smoke made everything distant and ghostly over Volantis and the coast making the clear limit between Essos and the Summer Sea. Even the Volantis fleet blockading their place of birth didn't see the reptile until it was too late. Not that it mattered much in the short term. The dragon Viserion had no intention to join the battle on one side or the other. No, what had attracted the fire-breathing lizard here was a far more primal instinct. Hunger. And the burning city of Volantis, with thousands of corpses roasted and temperatures approaching the coldest caldera of the Valyrian Fourteen Flames, were the ideal places for a dragon to eat and rest.

Concerning the legitimate question why this particular dragon was arriving at this exact moment, it is necessary to go several days back. After the Battle of the Sea of Flames which saw the destruction and dispersal of an important majority of the Volantene naval assets, the Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet and the Red Priest Moqorro had had the greatest difficulties to make the pale dragon obey. Viserion may be one of the tamest members of his species, but everything was relative, especially when one talked about a flying reptile able to destroy a middle-sized city in an afternoon with some hours to spare. The blood, the thousands of corpses, the fire and a lot of factors had excited the dragon, stretching the magical bindings to their limits. Two followers of R'hllor paid this discovery of their life when Viserion partially devoured them. Moqorro and all the magic practitioners left in the rebel Volantene warships combined their strength and knowledge, and managed to put back the dragon under control (that means under chains) in the hull of the transport. For how long was the great question, though everyone aboard the combined Ironborn-rebel fleet hoped it would last long enough for them to reach Volantis and the power of High Priest Benerro and thousands of fellow R'hllorites.

If it had been a legendary quest song by a bard to a young public, it would have probably happened. Perhaps. But this was real life, and the reality was that both parts of this new gathered fleet had had no opportunity to resupply in any harbour since the last naval battle. Sailing to New Ghis or the Basilisk Isles would have imposed too long a detour, not to mention these places would have had to be stormed by force of arms. No one but a fool would have suggested setting foot on the ruins of Valyria, as the air and the soil there were poison for mortals. Behind them Queen Daenerys Targaryen was plunging Slaver's Bay in a storm of destruction and fire. Pleasant or no, Volantis was the only logical destination. And it was too far away.

Much like the dragon Dreadwing under Euron Greyjoy's warlocks, Viserion was growing enraged by the magic binding him, and the discomfort of the confined ship's hull did not help things. To make the situation a worse one, a dragon was carnivorous, needing large quantities of meat when it was forced to use his main offensive weapon, the dragonfire. But there were no animals or large quantities of meat to feed Viserion, and giving him the last prisoners to eat was only a stop-gap. About three days before the arrival to Volantis, the chains and the magic bindings catastrophically failed.

The men and women aboard the transport containing Viserion perished without realising their end had come. One moment the transport was here; the other the pale dragon was rising in the sky and flying northwards, while the transport disintegrated in a massive inferno and sunk with no survivors. Except Moqorro, who was in the middle of a conference with Victarion Greyjoy and the other senior captains, all the Red Priests aboard the fleet were burned to death. This had rather drastically simplified the plans of the naval force under the command of Balon Greyjoy's last surviving brother, and not a good way. With very limited food and water in their stores, the warships were forced to land at Volantis, no matter the opposition or who held the city. Or all their crew would die of thirst and starvation.

The problem was that Volantis had never been the place to welcome escaped slaves with open arms, the Volantene nobles and soldiers put their head on pikes or crucified them (welcoming them with open arms was left to Braavos). And now that the long-awaited civil war had been unleashed, it was even less rejoicing. Before the appearance of Viserion, the Red Priests had been ready to launch a massive charge against the reinforcements called by the Triarchs when they realised the situation had escaped all control. About three hundred thousand rebel slaves and Red Priests, against more than thirty thousand veteran warriors, who had excellent military equipment and more importantly trebuchets, scorpions, ballista and all the panoply of siege engines it was possible to have. As the dragon they had seen manifested no intention to come help them, High Priest Benerro gave the order to sound charge. What followed was a too predictable slaughter.

Red Priests were redoubtable forces magically, but the range of their powers was less than the one available to an elite archer with a longbow. A lot less than the bolt of a scorpion engine. And the blood magic which had been so potent initially had seen its reserves severely depleted. To deal their enemies some damage, the magical users had to close the gap between them and their enemies, which meant entering a killing ground where four thousand archers and sixty siege engines shot a rain of destruction that they had never seen before. This time there was no treason or mutiny to thin and disorganise the Volantene ranks. Each time soldiers managed to rush to contact, they were welcomed by thousands of massive spears. The sellswords and the regular Volantene soldiers, protected behind cuirasses and massive shields, butchered the insurrection on the plain like it was a training exercise. Less than two hours were necessary for the rebels to realise they weren't going to win this round, and despite the best efforts of the Red Priests and the veterans having changed their loyalties, the planned withdrawal became a huge rout, leaving close to twenty-eight thousand rebels dead on the field for insignificant losses on the other side.

The loyalists Volantene did not pursue. Why should they have? Volantis was burning in front of them, and engaging the battle in the ruins of the labyrinth of streets and alleys only known to the slaves would be a battle where they, not the slaves, would face every drawback. Moreover, the insurrection still had the numerical advantage. Passing the gates was the equivalent of a gigantic trap, one no soldier in the Volantene army had the intention to arm.

Events soon proved this reasoning had been the correct choice. The next day, rain fell in great quantities, stopping the fires which had done so much damage to the infrastructure. Two days after the first failed assault, the rebel fleet arrived and was immediately challenged by the Volantene one. Sensing opportunity, High Priest Benerro ordered a new sally to surprise the besiegers. This time, the army which emerged from Volantis was better disciplined. It was also much less numerous. And it retreated even faster, as the insurgents realised the vigilance and the competence of their enemies had not disappeared in forty-eight hours.

The outcome at sea was more devastating. The Volantene fleet had lost all its traitorous elements now, and only the most skilled and lucky remained. They had also time to expedite repairs, and hate flowed in their hearts each time they watched the carcass of the city they had once called home. Even after their terrible losses, the Volantene forces would have outnumbered the Ironborn and the former slaves two-to-one at sea. That was before the spell Moqorro had put on the Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet failed of course. Many Ironborn had known something unnatural had happened to their commander since his meeting with the Red Priest. The most evident signs of this being his new worship in the Red God and his smoking black arm. But every spell or trance had a limited life expectancy. It had certainly happened to the Valyrians controlling the volcanoes in the Lands of Always Summer. It happened again as Moqorro was busy controlling Viserion from Meereen to Volantis. And following the magical backlash, the Red Priest whose name was Black Flame in High Valyrian had lost most of his magical strength, letting Victarion Greyjoy become again the terrible reaver who had inspired so many fears in the Greyjoy Rebellions. Moqorro and his followers were butchered on the bridge of the _Iron Victory_ and all the surviving longships of the Iron Fleet sailed away from the battle in the direction of the Orange Shore, letting the mutineers be massacred by their former comrades.

The Iron Fleet retaking its independence, the rebel fleet crushed and an army camping outside the walls, the situation became untenable for the rebels inside Volantis. Not only they had not managed to storm the Black Walls, but they were now sharing their city with a dragon too, and the beast was not feeling tender feelings towards anything bearing a red robe. In this kind of situation, one might excuse a sizeable majority of the former slave population to genuinely wonder if R'hllor was really caring about their ultimate fate or the plan of the Red Priests was to use them as martyrs all along. Between the rains and the fires, a good part of Volantis was now a bleak picture of desolation and ruins. Having food, water and a safe shelter was becoming exceedingly rare, the gigantic Temple of the Lord of Light being abandoned as the dragon took refuge there and roasted the Red Priests daring to oppose him. In the ruined archways of the Long Bridge, entire families died in the obscurity. Merchant houses and areas where celebrations had been held were now torched or cracked in multiple places. In too many places, the corpses and the rats were the only things remaining.

Nevertheless, things were not pleasant inside the Black Walls too. After the first two days of battle, the Valyrian elites relaxed, confident their unruly subjects would not be able to breach this marvel of Valyrian architecture. They were right, but the enemy was already inside with them. The Triarchs had in the last days given orders and directives using the absolute authority they were supposed to have inherited from the Freehold. Now that the really imminent danger was less threatening, it was time to reveal to the Triarchs how furious their citizens were with them. Triarch Belicho Staegone was the first to die, tragically falling in the cage of the tigers as he did not looked where he walked. Mere hours after his colleague, the orgy organised by Triarch Nyessos Vhassar took a violent turn when four of his wives entered his room of pleasures with daggers and proceeded to butcher him and all his invitees. As for Triarch Malaquo Maegyr, the old member of the Tiger Party had only the time to declare new elections had to be called before being dragged outside and dismembered by the combined effort of four elephants.

Following these three infamous deaths, a brutal purge started among the scions of the Old Blood. Part of the reason the Triarchs were assassinated was their admitted incompetence. But what had been the critical breakpoint was the lack of authority Maegyr and the two others enjoyed now among the Volantene armed forces. The army and the fleet outside, as well as the men over the top of the Black Walls, manifested a deep resentment at the idea of fighting and dying for old men who understood nothing to the present conditions. No, the messages sent by birds from outside told one thing: the Triarchs had to be removed from the picture. Because there were plenty of old fossils and arch-conservatives supporting the head, these people would be removed in the same manner. In ten hours, the palaces and divine mansions reserved the descendants of Old Valyria gorged themselves of blood.

When this violent political change was ultimately over, the face of the Volantene political system had been overturned. The highest ranking aristocrats left were trying their best not to compete in the electoral process, worried with just cause doing so would mark them as targets. Two men and a woman, named respectively Malassos Borroro, Aeros Soderro and Saena Lavenyr were elected Triarchs of Volantis, and began their first task of cleaning actively what was left of Volantis from insurgents, rebels and traitors. With siege engines bombarding the positions of the Red Priests and their allies night and day, from land and from the sea, the Volantene generals took back progressively the outer walls and established a secured corridor between outside and the Black Walls. Reinforcements coming from Volon Therys were arriving, with more men from Valysar, Selhorys and the Disputed Lands on their way. To anyone but the stupidest men, the slave uprising had failed. To further unbalance the scales, the new Triarchs of Volantis authorised their opponents to surrender, under the condition they were not Red Priests and renounced their worship of R'hllor on the spot. The number of enemies decreased by the thousands, as desertion, tiredness, lack of supplies and battle took their toll. High Priest Benerro and his inner circle were driven back against the Temple of the Lord of Light (which at this very moment was the new residence of a dragon) and the final assault was going to be launched when cavalrymen guarding the eastwards approaches of Volantis signalled a huge army marching along the Demon Road. And over it, flew two dragons. Queen Daenerys Targaryen had finally arrived. The roar of the dragons was heard. An era was about to end.


	66. Pay or Face the Consequences

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Iron Bank or the Faceless Men. Too bad.

 **Notice** : I chose to come back to the normal style of review per review instead of the Q/A. Hope it doesn't bother anyone.

ProCannonFodder: Dacey Mormont stayed with Arya at Winterfell. Robb wanted to be sure his little sister wouldn't run in the direction of the Wall as soon as he had his back turned.

raw666: Thanks! And yes, there are going to be fewer Volantenes once this war is over.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks for the review.

X59: Victarion trying to lead back the Iron Fleet to the Iron Islands is a doomed enterprise, not that he knows that. He could try, but there is a very good chance the Reach naval forces would intercept him and sunk his last longships.

Viserion is a dragon, and as such was always from the moment of its birth potentially feral and hostile. The real question is if the flying reptile remembers Daenerys, or if he will follow the infamous path of the man he took his name from...

jankmaster98: Thanks for the comments, I appreciate the congratulations. As for a certain poet, I have something in preparation...

Paul: In all fairness, Victarion is not really what an impartial observer could call a good guy. A lot of people forget he killed his wife with his bare hands. Hardly the sign of a well-reasoned person. When you add he the fact he was under magical influence for several weeks, the results were alas sadly predictable.

Yes, this chapter was necessary. Daenerys is marching along the Demon Road with a coalition of several forces, none of them having good logistic capabilities. No matter how you looked at it, the ships having participated in the actions of Slaver's Bay were always going to arrive first. My other intention was to show sometimes, cavalry isn't arriving in time. We had Robb, Stannis and several other generals making impressive reversal of fortunes on the battlefield, with often big armies coming in to save the day at the last moment. It didn't happen at Volantis. I'm sorry for it, but in some ways slave insurrections are always difficult to control, and the Red Priests for all their ingenuity had not as many cards in their hands as they wanted to believe.

The fate of Mantarys will be mentioned in the next Volantis chapter...which will come in two or three weeks. Don't worry about your comments; as long as it isn't using insulting language, I try to take into account the opinion of every reader who posts here. Alas, sometimes I'm forced to take certain things like distances and logistics into account, which leads to...unpleasant situations. I wonder if GRRM has the same problem sometimes...

Darthas: Not quite. Technically, all of the Essossi cities, even Braavos, are legacies of Valyria. One city may fall, but the inheritance of the dragonlords is far from extinct.

Eduard Kassel: The Volantene army was somewhat relieved to get rid of the incompetent Triarchs in the short-term. There is a strong movement this civil war was caused by the greed and the corruption of the ruling caste, and frankly they are not completely wrong. The vassal cities, in the mean time, are starting to write their petitions and other pledges to the new rulers of Volantis, asking for more independence and flexibility from the capital. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

 **Pay or Face the Consequences**

 **The Iron Bank will not have its due Part II**

 _"Because winning a hundred battles out of a hundred is not the supreme excellence. Forcing the enemy to give up without a fight is the supreme excellence."_ Admiral Naavarios, 300AC.

 _"It is time to remind our enemies the Titan cannot be brought down!"_ Sealord Fregar, 300AC.

 _"The dragonlords are surely rolling in their smoking graves right now."_ Anonymous Braavosi soldier, on the fall of Dragonstone.

Of all the elections which were organised during or near the era of the Second Long Night, the Braavosi elections were noteworthy to be the only ones which saw no violence, riots or insurrection from a bloodthirsty crowd. That was not to say it was a joyful affair. Misery and sorrow were in the air in the city of the Braavos. Its inhabitants were too well aware their beloved city was at peace, yes, but it was in the eye of a gigantic storm. The lands of Westeros across the Narrow Sea had been consumed in flames and carnage, with thousands joining thousands of corpses in unmarked graves and funeral pyres. On the seas, the third oldest profession of the world, piracy, was on the rise again. To the south, Pentos was making threatening sounds, Lys, Myr and Tyrosh had opened up a new bloody conflict. The rest of Essos was convulsing in an inferno of violence. And winter was coming, while the kings and princes in debt to the Iron Bank tried to default their loans, in the hope the vast financial institution of Braavos crumbled under these sudden attacks.

In this context, who became the new Sealord was of critical importance. Major and minor merchants, bankers of different horizons, courtesans, soldiers or simple sailors, everyone understood the outcome of this vote could very well decide the future of Braavos for the next decade. Ensuring the candidate they supported was elected became soon a very real preoccupation for some of the Braavosi losing money every day as their neighbours were more busy killing each other than repaying their debts. From the very beginning, the faction of Lorro Tevos was marginalised. This candidate for the post of Sealord had been willing to inflict economic sanctions and a few military demonstrations, but no more than that. The common Braavosi wanted more decisive action, and turned to Berrero Zathyne and Torm Fregar, who promised respectively the adding of the former Crownlands and Pentos to their client states.

Of course these three names were just the three more important candidates in the race for becoming the most important man of the city. There were dozens of other participants in the process, who knew pertinently they had no chance of winning, but wanted to attract some popular support in order to negotiate with the winner once all the ballots had been counted. It was one of the traditions which made the force of the sea-city: with a low wealth-threshold to vote or to be elected, many in Braavos decided to take their chance while other cities like Volantis would have executed such imprudent if they had the temerity to run for Triarch. A vote being a vote, and humans being humans, the Braavosi election happening on the last month of 300AC was still a succession of manoeuvres, back-stabbing, insults and propaganda coming from everywhere. The Braavosi may not have the corruption of Volantis, the repugnant traditions of Slaver's Bay or the absence of representation of Westeros, but the noble art of vilipending the opponent, kissing children, presenting yourself at the hand of a beautiful courtesan, shaking the hands of the bankers and the merchants had been known and perfected long ago. Braavos may be the bastard daughter of Old Valyria, but the descendants of slaves populating the city had learnt the lessons of their now deceased masters. The election at the end was a very close affair, with Torm Fregar victorious, but Berrero Zathyne had been beaten by a very slim margin of six hundred votes. These two candidates had cumulated about seventy per cent of the total vote between themselves, leaving Lorro Tevos with eleven per cent and fourteen other candidates dividing between themselves the remaining votes. Everyone knew what it meant. Braavos was going to war against Pentos.

Yet, the nature of the victory meant that newly-elected Sealord Fregar could not brush aside the concern and the voices of Zathyne's faction, who had been supported by some of the wealthiest families of Braavos. About three hundred warships and transports of all types had been gathered for the main naval thrust against their southern neighbour, but one hundred more were prepared for gaining a foothold in the Crownlands, Fregar choosing to silence temporarily his greatest critics in this manner. The rest of the Braavosi fleet would escort the merchants and protect the approaches of the city, a necessary task in these times where the sea lanes were troubled by piracy.

It was evident such a naval mustering could not be hidden from the Pentoshi spies. But the magisters governing this Essossi city had an unpleasant decreasing number of choices at their disposition. Increasing your war fleet and converting merchantmen was a good and logical order, but what good it did, when the enemy had a so great superiority in numbers. With an enemy armada only surpassed in size by the now defeated Volantene fleet coming their way, Pentos prepared for war, knowing very well they had woke up the dragon and that their choices were right now to ride it or to pray of mercy. The major issue with these expectations, was the fact they were all wrong. The size of the Braavosi fleet was impressive to be sure, but the first blade to strike Pentos did not come from the arrows and the siege engines of their violet sails warships. No, it came in a far subtle and deadlier form.

The assassins known as the Faceless Men were one of the darkest and most efficient organisations based at Braavos. No one save their own members knew who they were. Few knew all the conditions which had to be performed to hire them. Even fewer wanted to do such an act. But every time these assassins without rival began their hunt, their targets were as good as dead. A Faceless Man would hunt you to the end of the world and beyond to accomplish his mission, and there were rumours they had magical powers to become shadows, animals or take the appearance of other persons. No matter what part of these rumours were true, their efficiency could not be doubted. One evening where most of the aristocracy, the Prince of Pentos and his forty magisters had been convened to a sumptuous ball with a food feat at profusion, the guards in charge of security remarked there was something very wrong when the doors of the palace closed without anyone having been informed of such an action and the shouts, laughter and various noises made by the meeting ended to be replaced by a silence which augured nothing good. The soldiers and every servant outside the palace rushed to open the door, which was done with great difficulty as someone had barred the gates. Once inside, they were met by a spectacle of dismay. Everyone, from the lowest "free bond servant" to the Prince of Pentos was dead. More astonishingly, the causes of death were not poison or anything like that: it was like the occupants of the luxurious mansion had killed, strangled and stabbed each other in a frenzy of violence. How it had been done in so short an amount of time and between Pentoshi participants obviously having nothing against each other, those who discovered this massacre did not know. But the after-effects were simple. In one massive assassination, the leaderships of Pentos had been murdered, wiped out in their own city under the nose and beard of their population. Among those murdered on that night were Magister Illyrio Mopatis and the former Master of Whisperers Varys, erasing the possibility of everyone knowing the goals, the plans and the ambitions of those two major figures in the War of the Eight Kings.

In other times, the loss of about five hundred persons, half of them "free-bonded servants", would have been a terrible blow but not necessarily a game-ending one. But with a Braavosi fleet two days away from the bay of Pentos, the loss of the wealthiest and more influential men of the city in an impossible event, sellswords deserting the harbour and the taverns to be far far away when the invasion force came calling, Pentos had lost. When Admiral Naavarios and his fleet entered the harbour, Pentos surrendered without an arrow launched or a sword drawn. The enemy had been vanquished before the battle had been in view. The consequences for Pentos in the short-term were rather significant, as the Braavosi declared the "free-bonding serfdom" and the slavery to be forbidden forever, making the entire population of Pentos free in one edict. The second order was to name in urgency to name a noble of sufficient high-rank to sign the treaty which ended the independence of Pentos and its surrounding lands.

The assault on Dragonstone went with more bloodshed for the Braavosi expeditionary forces, but once again it was a strange coincidence which left the commander of the guard there taking a crumbling piece of stone on his head three days before the violet sails arrived. Not that there was much resistance: with the death of Queen Selyse Florent, the departure of Princess Shireen Baratheon for Storm's End, the urgent needs for King Stannis in term of manpower and the storms wrecking at irregular intervals the sinister black-stoned fortress, most of the forces, detachments and guards who had once occupied Dragonstone were gone. Stannis Baratheon had not made any mystery that Storm's End would be the capital of the unofficial "Storm kingdom", and Dragonstone had barely two hundred and fifty men when one hundred warships came out of the grey sea to attack. The catapults and trebuchets managed to sink two ships and damaged three more, the archers did what they could, but after less than a day of fight, Dragonstone fell. Three days later, it was the turn of Driftmark.

The Braavosi could have continued this campaign, but the orders of Sealord Fregar stopped them. The new ruler of Braavos had never wanted to conquer any part of Westeros, not because he judged the act unfeasible, but more because he felt that one day, the Westerosi kingdoms would unite to push back them into the sea and destroy all the investment done in the mean time. No, it was better in the Sealord opinion to hold and control valuable territories and possessions which could be defended within reason. Dragonstone and Driftmark fell in this category. With these two islands in their hands, the Braavosi had the control of everything which entered and came out of Blackwater Bay (though they had to repulse probing attacks of Salladhor Saan's fleet now), took control of the most important mining site of dragonglass (although it would lead to a very real animosity with the rest of Westeros in time), and would force Stannis Baratheon to come to negotiations on their own terms once he heard the news. In some way, the Braavosi entry of the war was a masterstroke: demoralising their enemies by carefully planned assassination and sending overwhelming naval force against targets which had few strength available to fight them, the northernmost city of Essos had gained in territory two strategic positions and Essossi possessions running from the Braavosi coastlands through Andalos through the Velvet Hills and reaching until the Northern Flatlands. More space to expand and establish outposts than the admirals, traders and merchants of Braavos had ever dreamt of.

The dreams didn't last long before turning to nightmare though. While the representative of King Robb Stark in the Crownlands, Lord Roose Bolton, did not have the ships to signify his displeasure at a move which blocked Blackwater Bay to everyone not flying a Braavosi banner, others were not so limited in their options. From the south-east, a massive army was coming nearer and nearer towards Pentos. And from the frozen wastes of the north, the Great Enemy advanced, reaching the human realms and transforming them into a hell of snow and ice. The common Braavosi living over the canals suddenly felt very happy his superiors had conserved important military forces close to home. They were going to need them.


	67. Hold the Breach

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Night's Watch or the Others.

Master of Dragons God: Thanks!

X59: Varys and Illyrio's presence in this particular mansion was supposed to be their last day in Pentos before they escaped east in order to rally the sides of Daenerys Targaryen. The Faceless Men put a bloody end to those plans.

Jaqen H'ghar was one of the assassins involved in the last mentioned murders. He will make a few apparitions in the war, in service of the Iron Bank and/or Braavos.

Paul: Well, piracy is so old, and one might say it has a lot of relations with the oldest professions of the world...

Concerning Varys and Illyrio, I chose this end because for all their wealth, influence and sources of information, these two plotters remained ultimately weak in the grand scheme of things, unable to do anything should one sellsword decide to cut them down in a dark alley. The fact they weren't directly the target here is even more ironic.

Sealord Fregard is not a very nice character; he's a politician after all. But he's a man who has the best interests of Braavos at heart (and his of course), and this meant gaining power at the expense of his neighbours.

Roose Bolton for all his faults is not an imbecile. Attacking the primary naval power of this world on their battlefield of predilection would be a stupidity beyond imagination, further emphasized by the fact he has no heir at the moment, so if he dies House Bolton is extinct.

No, Maester Pylos is currently at Storm's End. But his replacement at Dragonstone is still alive too. Braavosi are not bloodthirsty beasts like the Ironborn, once the garrison surrendered all the civilians were well-treated.

Darthas: The Others come from the Lands of Always Winter, in the northernmost regions of Beyond-the-Wall. They are a Westerosi problem...until they reach another continent. Their determination to wipe out every living being makes them everyone's problem.

As for Essos, the heart of every magical activity is in the ruins of Valyria. Though the Grey Waste and the Shadow Lands are not bad either in this area either.

 **Hold the Breach**

 **The Great Battle of the Wall Part III**

 _"For the Half-Man and for the Dawn!"_ Ser Bronn Blackwater, 300AC.

 _"You are soldiers of the Night's Watch. No matter the strength of the enemy which will come by this breach, you will hold your positions!"_ Attributed to Black Brother Small Paul, authenticity never confirmed, 300AC.

 _"We will remember the Slayer until the end of times."_ Black Brother Pypar, 300AC.

 _"You will have to continue without us, your Majesty. We will be the rear-guard. The Night's Watch failed, but we will not flee our duty."_ Lord Denys Mallister, 300AC.

 _"Die, abomination!"_ Lord Jon 'Greatjon' Umber, 300AC.

 _"No man alive will ever be able to kill the Night's Queen."_ Maester Aemon Targaryen, 300AC.

Although it is rarely mentioned in any chronicle relating the events of this dark period, it is difficult to exaggerate the cataclysm the fall of the Wall represented in the mind of its defenders. For more or less eight thousand years, the Wall had been here. Indomitable. Unmovable. Seven hundred feet height. The frontier between the civilised realms of men and the dark frozen wastes of the Haunted Forest. Wildling or black brother, everyone knew the Wall as their geographic anchor. It was the masterwork of Brandon Stark the Builder. It was so high and so great it put to shame every other construction known to man. And many believed it would stand intact to the end of times. Unfortunately, the Others army had decided to bring this apocalypse earlier than expected. Now the Wall was breached, and a deathless army of a size never seen in millennia was charging towards the hole in their defences. There was no time to call for retreat. In the winter conditions striking the human coalition at this very moment, it would have been a massacre anyway, the lack of light, the snowstorms and the fact that the Northern forces were spread over the entire strength of three hundred leagues making sure of that. No, the human forces were going to have to withstand the assault and pray for a miracle. The dragon of the Night's Queen and the ice wyverns had withdrawn from the frontlines; the archers were going to stay on top of the Wall and bombard the Others positions while the melee fighters descended to block the huge gap in the antic fortification.

This plan had from the start a massive drawback. Time. The archers and all the fighters had been taken aback by the death of the ice dragon at the hands of Tyrion Lannister, and even if they hadn't been, descending the Wall was not a thing a man did in one minute. The reserves near the Nightfort, such as they were and what was left of them, would have to hold the enemy waves to give the Night's Watch, the wildlings and the Northerners a chance to take their positions. Commanded by Small Paul, a black brother, about eighty men and women charged ahead and positioned themselves between the abominations and the human realms, fully intending to take with them any being which came from the death realm. They had not to wait long. An ocean of wights and monsters slammed into them, waves of darkness coming at the light of their torches. Yet, the preparations of Tyrion Lannister saved once again the defenders. The legendary dwarf was now lying dead under a considerable amount of ice and snow (although naturally there are still today a not so minor number of sects who considers this an heresy and affirm Tyrion Lannister will come back when Westeros will need him), but his preparations survived. The reserves had been equipped with large shields and pikes to form a core of heavy infantry, the logic being that any wight which would have managed to climb the Wall and pass to the other side would have easily been dismembered by such a force. The reasoning had been sound, but no strategist present on the Wall had imagined them being needed to defend against the whole army of the Night. Small Paul and his group did what they could. Against a normal army led by humans and consisting of humans, they would have wrecked a severe toll, perhaps enough for the enemy to doubt and withdraw to prepare a second charge. Here there was not a chance of this happening. The wights had no moral to speak of, and the Others, as far as it could be seen by watching their inhuman faces and the blue shining flames they emanated, were in a murderous mood after having taken so many casualties. The men standing in the breach were literally overwhelmed by the numbers, assaulted by more than one hundred wights for each living human present. No amount of valour, courage or discipline could prevent defeat. Small Paul and his men all died, but the Others paid a dreadful price in wights, as the Northern archers profited from this brutal charge to slaughter every dead being arriving in their range. Several barrels full of oil and other inflammable products were also launched, creating a monumental inferno in the stranglehold.

The Night's Queen didn't care about hundreds of wights perishing per minute, though. The first wave may have been temporarily stopped, but a second, third and fourth were now rolling at the speed of an avalanche in the breach. But this time the defenders were ready. Ser Bronn Blackwater screamed for the first time a battlecry which would be taken again on dozens of battlefield across Westeros: "For the Half-Man and for the Dawn!". And then the black brothers nicknamed the Black Lions, followed by all their allies charged the endless torrent of troops in front of them. It was a desperation move, and it was not a stretch of imagination those who were present knew they were about to die.

When the two formations of the living and the dead clashed, it was a shock of an unprecedented brutality. The two sides by now were unwilling to offer any quarter, and the humans still able to breathe and think were now veterans of winter fighting: those who had not adapted had already been brutally put down in the first hours of general assault. Led by Lord Jon 'Greatjon' Umber, the Northern troops taught the Others that while wights were in general only permanently disposed by fire, dismembering them piece by piece was enough to have them out of their minds for the current battle. The Black Lions and the rest of the warriors behind them were not idle either, creating a trail of destruction and fury so implacable even the dead opponents facing them were pushed back by the impact.

Alas, this hesitation lasted only an instant. A cold scream was shouted in the air, and now thousands more wights rushed to the new frontline, supported by a large number of White Walker infantry. Despite being more than three thousand men strong, the human force mustered in this place was outnumbered more than six-to-one by the enemy. The speed of their charge was faltering, while bear and other animal wights came to contact and Others ice blades reaped their first victims. Men fell one after the other, eliminating four or five wights, only for two or three more to take them in the back and kill them. This was a fight the armies protecting Westeros simply could not win. Worse, the dragon of the Night's Queen, which had landed near the Haunted Forest after the death of his fellow, was now showing sign to intervene again, judging by the miniature ice storm unleashed by the flapping of his pale blue-white wings. King Robb Stark and his troops were going to be submerged by the tide of death. It was at this moment where the fate of humanity hanged in the balance, the Horn of Winter sounded for the first time in thousands of years.

When the King of Beyond-the-Wall Mance Rayder had been defeated by the Night's Watch, the black brothers had taken possession of an incredibly lengthy warhorn, which had been found in the Frostfangs. Originally thought to have been created by Joramun, Great King of Beyond-the-Wall, this horn was supposed to be able to destroy the work of Brandon the Builder and wake up the antic giants from the Earth. But in the assault against Castle Black, the wildlings had been confronted to a dilemma: assuming the Horn worked as it was speculated, nothing would stop the Others to pursue them south of the Wall. The point became soon moot by the way, because when Mance Rayder died and his army routed, several of his most fanatic supporters tried to sound the warhorn. Not even a whisper came out of this ancient artefact. The Night's Watch took possession of it in the aftermath of the battle, although the object was more regarded as a curiosity by the officers present. The reason were clearly just: if thirty or forty men, two giants and one skinchanger had failed to sound the horn, then the more logical explanation was the horn had been damaged in the hundreds of years it had passed in the ice and snow of the Frostfangs. This or someone in a distant past had had an overblown ego and decided to create a horn having no musical ability whatsoever. As a consequence, all commanders and soldiers fighting for their very lives on the Wall had honestly forgotten the existence of the so-called Horn of Winter. Hard to blame them, when abominations of ice and death swarmed the defences. All had forgotten except one. Samwell 'the Slayer' Tarly, first man having had fought and destroyed an Other, had remembered. With the help one of the last giants named Wun Wun, the eldest son of Lord Randyll Tarly had brought the horn from Castle Black to the ruins of the Nightfort. In the chaos of the battle raging in the breach, the arrival of these new arrivals went unnoticed, giving Samwell Tarly the opportunity to sound the Horn of Winter.

This was no music which came out the ancestral horn. It was more a scream and a complaint at the same time, a desperate call for help beyond the ages, a cry for salvation and the power of magic in a time which had forgotten so much of the last Long Night. The Horn of Winter was sounded. And the giants answered. Significant earthquakes shook the earth, and in the middle of the lands between the Haunted Forest and the Wall, hundreds of wights were slammed, pulverised or massacred as beings of earth, snow and ice emerged from their long slumber. The Others armies pushed for the first scream of consternation, as the battle revealed itself taking an unexpected turn for them. The armies of the black brothers and the Northerners regained courage and charged once again the enemies of all life. There were about twenty to twenty-five giants waking up, and they were in the middle of the Others infantry formations. They were tall, about ninety to a hundred feet, and the massive extremities which in no way could be classified as arms and legs shook the earth and the Wall to their very foundations. In one call, Samwell Tarly had given humanity a chance to win this battle.

But the Slayer paid a terrible price for his act of bravery. Sounding the Horn of Winter had been neither a subtle nor a careful planned move; perched on top of the Wall with a giant to hold the artefact, the only persons unable to see Samwell Tarly were blind wights. Maybe. And the Night's Queen had still a fully grown ice dragon with her.

Pushing a terrifying command in an unknown language, the leader of the White Walkers mounted her cold reptile and took the air, a blazing blue fire coming at an incredible speed towards the heights where the archers were located. Only fifty bowmen managed to interpose themselves between Samwell Tarly and the immortal queen, and none had siege engines able to shatter the skin of a fully-grown dragon. No arrow found its mark on a vulnerable point. In an atrocious sound, the ice dragon breathed a colossal stream of frozen fire. The human archers, the giant Wun Wun, Samwell Tarly and the Horn of Winter, as well as a good part of the top of the wall, disappeared forever in a monumental and gory explosion, no protection having the magical property of countering such a power. The giants which had just risen would receive no reinforcements.

That was not to say the battle was over. Horn of Winter or no Horn of Winter, there were still twenty-plus oversized giants, who were very busy to ravage the ranks of the wights and the Others. Ice spiders were squashed. Dead Horses were trampled. Others were thrown flying hundreds of feet in the air. The humans were butchering their way through the breach, a horrible melee where no one controlled anything anymore. Lord Hugo 'Big Bucket' Wull fell fighting alone and unmounted dozens of wights. Ser Kyle Condon was stabbed by a moose wight and three Others slaughtered him in the following seconds. The Night's Queen was still in the sky, fighting an aerial battle against the giants, throwing blue bolts of energy against the woken sleepers. The Night's King charged towards the gap in the Wall, followed by thousands and thousands of wights. There was fire. There was ice. There was dragonglass, steel, iron and many other things clashing in a whirlwind of death and slaughter.

The carnage was total when King Robb Stark and his most dangerous fighters met the Night's King in the middle of this devastation. It was not a duel. With the colossus in midnight black armour having demonstrated his strength by beating one of the last giant alive with only his sole armoured fists, the Northerners were not stupid to go fight this warrior of terror one-on-one. That did not mean it was an easy task. Others champions were with their commander, and the male leader of the White Walkers had a magical ice sword in one hand and a mace with plenty of spikes in the other. Each time this lord of fear struck, one Northerner, Free Folk or black brother fell. Still, the wights were too stupid and the White Walkers were too slow in reacting to the true danger their commanding officer was in. Destroying one of the ice warriors with a dragonglass dagger, Tormund 'Giantsbane' charged the black-armoured figure and managed to block his weapons an instant. Sufficient for the Greatjon to grapple and immobilise him, and for King Robb Stark to decapitate him in a single strike of Wolf's Paw. Tormund 'Giantsbane' didn't survive, though, the Night's King having managed to cut him in half with his sword in a last shriek of agony. Who exactly was this mysterious human serving the forces of darkness is a secret all historian and maester have never managed to discover, although the King in the North's face was reported as pale as death when he ordered his subordinates to burn the enemy he had just killed.

It should have been a moment of victory. Many champions of the Others had been slain. The Night's King had fallen. But in reality, it was all over for humanity. The archers and builders in top of the Wall had no ammunition anymore after so long a battle. The defenders in the middle of the breach were tired and had suffered heavy losses. The reinforcements weren't coming for humanity, unlike the White Walkers which had an endless supply or corpses arriving at each turn of hourglass with a horrifying frequency. And the Night's Queen, now in a volcanic rage, had managed with a combination of magic lightning and ice-breath of her dragon to destroy in pile of stone and ice the majority of the giants, with only three remaining fighting. There was little doubt the battle was lost. The enemy was gathering more and more corpses for a last push, and though the Others had bled and died in this battle, the army of humanity was not in measure to stop them again.

Slowly, King Robb Stark and his senior commanders began to organise the retreat. The Black Lions and the rest of the Night's Watch survivors stayed behind to ensure the withdrawal didn't turn to a rout. Led by Lord Denys Mallister, there were at this time less than one hundred and fifty men standing in front of their mortal enemies. It was the greatest concentration of black brothers left, with Shadow Tower and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea holding the last pickets of this proud institution. They were all that remained to face the Night's Queen who had dismounted her wounded dragon (the last giant had managed to get a lucky shot on the beast left's wing before being destroyed) and now marched at the head of her undead troops, one long sword in her hand and a shield so luminescent it was the next best thing to a mirror. What happened next, no human was able to witness and report it. But the retreating Northerners and Free Folk heard the Night's Watch brothers shout their oaths in the heart of winter. They heard them sing with all their hearts and saw the blue maelstrom in the distance which devoured everything in an inferno. And then there was a deep silence. The White Walkers, destroyers of life, had passed the Wall. And humanity had very little strength to oppose them anywhere in the North...


	68. The Last Brothers

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Wall or the White Walkers.

 **Important Note:** There were plenty of people this last week who asked me if Jon Snow is dead. He's not. All the Night's Watch who were at the breach perished, but Jon Snow, Cotter Pyke and a few others who were not here at that very moment survived. More detail in the upcoming chapter.

Master of Dragons God, raw666, ProCannonFodder: Thanks for the review.

Guest: Not exactly. I gave Davos some Nelson quotes, because his status as undefeated admiral deserves such. Robb has a bit of Hannibal in him: in canon he won the battles but lost the war. But not everyone is the modern equivalent of some general or hero, especially when magic becomes involved.

QueenAryaI: I need to precise the persons venerating Tyrion have very liberate ideas about sex and alcohol...

Your guess at the Night's King identity is correct. And yes, Sam for all his faults became a hero, saving no doubt an entire army from annihilation.

melubarv: The Night's King was a man Robb knew. That's why he was so pale. Aemon is still alive at the beginning of this chapter. Bran tries to go northwards, but with Hodor and a little group carrying a crippled boy, their progression is long and difficult.

As for the Long Night, GRRM has his scenario in place, I have mine. I think my interpretation makes more sense, the Others amplifying a long winter to an unimaginable degree, but that's my opinion. I welcome all other interpretations.

Matt Quinn: The Night's Queen was explicitly described as an Other. The Night's King was a masked warrior, nothing allowed to say whether he was a man or a White Walker.

And yes, the Horn of Winter is not the game-ending artefact of this story...

nappus: Indeed the Night's Queen is a Witch-King figure...though she is more than comparable to Sauron in terms of raw magical power. Aemon is not Gandalf though, he just told this sentence to explain how difficult it is going to be to defeat the leadership of the Others.

X59: In fact there were two Night's Kings. The first, a Stark, who died a long time ago and whose armour was carried by Euron in the campaign of the Reach. The second, who was also a Stark and died against the sword of Robb Stark (many of you have guessed his true identity already).

The fate of the Night's Watch is going to be revealed in this chapter, so I'm not saying everything here.

Paul: I was sad to kill Sam and so many others, if it is any consolation, but I try to be as realistic as possible and the truth is no enemy worth the name would let his opponent sound endlessly in a horn giving the power to summon terrible giants from the earth.

A good part of the Night's Watch you just quoted are still alive, though wait until the end of this chapter before asking me for a complete sum-up. Edd Tollett survived of course. He has a reputation of "last man standing" to uphold...

As for Stannis, he has just passed the ruins of King's Landing and has reached Stokeworth. He has still a long wait to go, though the Northmen and other allies are going to improve his pace in the next weeks.

Darthas: The White Walkers are going to reach a lot of places by their actions, directly or indirectly. Remember the Others are ice, and that gives them the ability to freeze pretty much everything...

And now the end of the Great Battle for the Wall...

 **The Last Brothers**

 **The Great Battle of the Wall Part IV**

 _"My life for the Wall."_ Supposed last words of Ser Boros Blount, never confirmed.

 _"Some men say a retreat is a simple task. I challenge them to walk with me one fortnight in the snows of the North, in winter, pursued by an enemy willing to kill you simply because you exist. If they are still alive at the end, I will ask them the same question. But somehow I doubt they would survive."_ Princess Arya Stark, 310AC.

 _"Vote to name a new Lord Commander? Why? They aren't enough for us to make a Night's Watch anymore!"_ Jon Snow, 300AC.

 _"The Night's Watch is not supposed to retreat. Not unless we really, really have to."_ Commander Cotter Pyke, 300AC.

 _"The Wall has fallen. They are coming."_ Last message ever sent from Castle Black by Maester Aemon Targaryen, 300AC.

 _"Defying a White Walker in duel is stupid. The Old and New Gods have given us dragonglass to kill these abominations, and it would be heresy not to use it."_ Lord Podrick Payne addressing Northern troops, 304AC.

 _"Retreat! Retreat to the ships! Hurry, the Others are coming!"_ Commander Blane, 300AC.

If the battle having raged at the massive breach in the Wall during hours was finally over, the White Walkers having finally managed to annihilate the rear-guard of the Night's Watch, it didn't mean the Battle of the Wall was finished, far from it. The troops of the dreaded Night's Queen were going to win now, nothing but a miracle could avoid the defeat of the defenders. But the humans still breathing and fighting knew it wasn't the point anymore. At the instant when the breach had been created, King Robb Stark and all the lords and captains commanding the fortifications had known defeat was unavoidable, and had ordered the rest of the troops to withdraw in good order while it was still possible and the Others weren't immediately pursuing them. The courage of Samwell 'the Slayer' Tarly had allowed the Northerners, the Black Brothers and the Free Folk to inflict far more damage to the wights and the dead abominations than it had been thought possible. But now could be done had been done, and it was time to go, if one wanted to fight another day.

The plans of evacuation, which had been made at a time where the sun was still shining and the winds of winter had not shattered the hopes of victory, went into effect. The defenders of the breach, Hoarfrost Hill, Icemark, the Nightfort, Deep Lake, Queensgate, Castle Black, Oakenshield and Woodswatch-by-the-Pool were supposed to retreat in the direction of Last Hearth and regroup. The infantry present at Sable hall, Rimegate and Long Barrow had to withdraw to Karhold. The forces mustered at Torches, Greenguard and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea would be evacuated by ship to Ramsgate and White Harbor. Westwards, it had been thought to transport the Shadow Tower garrison by ship to Bear Island should the battle take an unfavourable outcome. Westwatch-by-the-Bridge being assailed by a dark tide of wights and the hulls being quite limited in numbers in the Bay of Ice, the men and women stationed at Sentinel Stand, Greyguard and Stonedoor would have to use the narrow mountain paths known only to the Mountain clans of the North. This had been the plan, but everyone among the officers present had known as the days passed and the night fell Beyond-the-Wall that these preparations were in all likelihood not going to survive reality. And as it happened they were right.

Close to three thousand and five hundred warriors had rallied under Robb Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Lord Denys Mallister and numerous others to defend the Nightfort and the breach. At the same time, Jon Snow, Cotter Pyke and Meera Reed with over four thousand fighters had been mustered at Greenguard. The rest of the human allied forces, close to twenty-one thousand men, were dispersed over the Wall's entire length. All of these deployments, in winter conditions which made the common Northerner warrior freeze at the very idea of leaving the barracks to fight in such dreadful weather. As a consequence, a coordinate withdrawal was all but impossible. When King Robb Stark and the surviving commanders retreated from the monumental gap created near the destroyed Nightfort, they had to march south or risk total annihilation. Messengers had been sent, by horse, by raven or by foot, but ultimately no one had the time to ensure everyone was going to acknowledge the orders and abandon the positions.

Ultimately, it wasn't enough. Despite what had been told and prepared, no one had been really vocal to admit the army defending the Wall could really be defeated. The Wall was just too tall and massive, their troops well-motivated, their leaders charismatic and inspiring. Breaking the first probing assaults had boosted the moral and the confidence of the average infantryman...only to break it away at the worst possible moment. The troops having survived the beating at the breach had still King Robb Stark, the 'Greatjon' and Queen Val with them, so this part of the withdrawal stayed coherent. The same went true for the retreat planned by Jon Snow and Meera Reed for the soldiers evacuated by the ships of Eastwatch. Leaders like Galbart and Robett Glover, Daryn Hornwood and many others also managed to hold their troops together. But several contingents had lost their officers or had lost all their means of communication with the other forts. And with wights still climbing the Wall and the Others coming from the rear, the disaster was not long in the making.

The fortresses of Deep Lake and Queensgate were evacuated in time when the Night's Queen and her troops stormed them in a hurricane of destruction, but there were still approximately two hundred troops in Castle Black when the hammer fell on the headquarters of the Night's Watch. Quite ironically, most of the defenders remaining here were not black brothers but Free Folk warriors. When the real assault of the Others had begun, the Night's Watch had barely a thousand members in its ranks, and not every one of those had been able to carry weapons (though the wildlings attacks, the cold and the desertions had eliminated the weakest and less-motivated men). Now, with the continuous assault of the ice and death terrors, this number had decreased to less than a hundred. In the furious melee at the Nightfort and the breach, the black brothers had not only lost their Lord Commander and their First Builder, four hundred men carrying the black had also given their life to defend the human realms. Combined with the losses taken at Greenguard and those taken in the last assaults, the casualty bill was such that the Night's Watch had almost ceased to exist. The greatest concentration of black brothers was now with Cotter Pyke and Jon Snow at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, roughly forty men. Commander Blane at Shadow Tower had twenty or thirty more fighters. That was all. Here and there, a lone man in black was serving in the ancestral forts but Castle Black had less than half a dozen brothers in it (and one was the venerable Maester Aemon Targaryen) when the Night's Queen approached the gates with hundreds of Others and thousands of wights.

In the absence of all the senior officers of the North and the Night's Watch, official command at Castle Black had been left to a Free Folk leader, who alas had suffered a fatal death by falling with a couple of wights from the top of the Wall. His second, a man sworn to House Cerwyn, was dead too having taken the arrow of a giant wight in his stomach. The third and fourth Free Folk leaders were dead. Command, in the middle of this disaster, had fallen to Ser Boros Blount, former Kingsguard now more renowned for his cowardice than anything else.

To his credit, the man many nicknamed in his face "the Coward" and other unsavoury names did not flinch from his duty this time. The last men inside Castle Black were ordered to close the gates and man the courtyard to oppose a last resistance. In the mean time, Podrick Payne, squire of the defunct Tyrion Lannister and last of the Black Lions, was ordered to escape by a secret tunnel under the castle and carry away the bag containing the last reserves of obsidian. Escorted by a Mountain clansman named Brom, Podrick Payne took the Black Book and the dragonglass, and then rushed away, beginning his long travel across the frozen lands of the North. Maester Aemon Targaryen sent the last ravens available away, with the simple message "The Wall has fallen. They are coming."

What happened next is the subject of much speculation, because no man in the headquarters where the leadership of the black brothers had lived for so many centuries survived to speak about it. The only witness, Podrick Payne himself, detailed in his _Chronicles_ that the castle was burning in the distance when he got away. But who exactly gave the order is likely to remain a mystery until the end of times. One thing was sure, though: Castle Black had fallen, symbolising the complete collapse of the Black Order.

This was far from the worst news in this dark night. With more and more soldiers and warriors of the human coalition trying to get away as much as possible, the defences were collapsing everywhere under the forces of winter and night. Lady Maege Mormont, Commander Blane and Robett Glover had barely the time to evacuate three thousand men by ship to Bear Island before all was lost. Daryn Hornwood led the retreat of seven hundred men in the mountains. But hundreds of fighters were unable to get away in time, and Galbart Glover, Master of Deepwood Motte, was forced to cover their retreat and was massacred with his last household guards by a platoon of White Walkers mounted on ice spiders.

Here and there candles of light remained in the obscurity, but so few to oppose the darkness. From Westwatch-by-the-Bridge to Castle Black, every fortress had now been stormed or abandoned, sometimes both (wights would never be reputed for their intelligence). Ser Helman Tallhart and Lord Robin Flint withdrew to Karhold with a thousand men. King Robb Stark and the main army escaping southwards to Last Hearth had gathered between five and six thousands survivors. Alas, for each man and woman who managed to escape, there was a warrior who fell at the hands of a wight of an Other. Lord Halys Hornwood died in a rear-guard action, and if not for the action of a spearwife named Ygritte, Jon Snow would have suffered the same fate against the ice sword of the White Walker.

The Others commanders did not want the humans to escape, and they were pressing their troops hard. Sometimes too hard, even though the wights were already dead, their alive opponents had not lost all tenacity and courage, and more than one White Walker and his wave of undead fell into a carefully planned ambush the arrogance of his species had sent him. One arrow of dragonglass and the ice abomination was no more. The wights were then temporarily immobilised, and the skirmishers wasted no time in burning them. It was thanks to these units operating at great risk the largest evacuation of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea went smoothly, evacuating more than five thousand soldiers and all the civilians having at great risk supplied and helped the Great Army of the North and its allies for this last campaign.

That was the last victory the defenders of the Wall would enjoy in this place. Whoever was in command on the other side had finally put an end to the absurd pursuits, instead a methodical storming of each fort was happening. Sable Hall, Rimegate, Long Barrow: the meagre garrisons which had stayed at their post were exterminated by a torrent of wights no one in their worst nightmares could have ever imagined. Torches and the ruins of Greenguard were overwhelmed. Then it was the turn of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.

With the meagre source of light provided by the Bay of Seals, Cotter Pyke and the last men having not yet evacuated the eastern castle had for the first time an estimate of how many enemies were coming for them. The answer was a lot. Even with the insane losses taken and the necessity of every human to burn the corpses of their dead comrades, the army which was now coming from Greenguard was uncountable. A sea of despair, the embodiment of death, the barbary of the winter. With hundreds of wights climbing the Wall over the heads of the Eastwatch defenders (and often carelessly throwing themselves in free fall), there was no room to hold. With ice wyverns and ice spiders kept in reserve, the Others could storm this position anytime they wished. There would be no bastion for humanity to relieve when or if the Westerosi kingdoms defeated the Great Enemy. Cotter Pyke and his last troops sailed away with the last Manderly galleys, leaving behind Eastwatch and its harbour consuming in a sinister inferno. The Battle for the Wall was now truly over. And the last days of the year 300 after Aegon the Conqueror's landed passed, the Battle of the North was about to begin...


	69. Storm of Arrows

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Wall or the White Walkers.

Thanks again everyone, we have reached 500 reviews. Hope this story continues to provide entertainment for every reader.

Ruci: No, it's the first interpretation which is correct. Boros Blount found a bit of courage to stand before his end.

raw666: That's an answer for the next chapters, sorry.

A simple reader: Officially, there can't be an estimate of the losses suffered by the Others. First, because you have to burn every corpse as soon you defeat one and secondly because the humans lost the battle, so they had not the time to stop and wonder how many enemies they had destroyed.

Unofficially, this battle cost around fifty-two thousand wights and seven thousand White Walkers to the Night's Queen. Of course, a good part of these casualties are due to the giants and the excellent defensive position provided by the Wall.

X59: Yes, let's the Battle of the North begins! Concerning Benjen, he and his patrol fell into a trap of the White Walkers, where he was the only survivor. Lost in the middle of nowhere, he was approached and seduced by the Night's Queen, who invited him in her bed and tempted him with visions of doom for his family if he didn't accept her gifts. You can probably guess the rest...

Paul: Who said the humiliations of Bros Blount had to happen while he was alive? Certain characters alive have excellent reasons to despise him and won't be shy in dragging his name in the mud. The wildling left in charge at Castle Black was nobody of importance, so I didn't even bother naming him.

Bronn died in the rear-guard action of the Night's Watch killed by the Night's Queen herself. Lancel died at the battle of Greenguard against a White Walker, Cleos was in the group under Small Paul which got crushed trying to hold the breach. Tion, Martyn and Willem were not among the troops sent to the Night's Watch immediately: they were deemed too young to fight and had more value as hostages at Winterfell.

I was speaking about Lord Robin Flint of Flint's Finger. As there was no Red Wedding in this story, he is very much alive. Not many wildlings survived, their lack of good armour, efficient training and discipline have proved terrible drawbacks against the Others. Over two thousand survived, but they are dispersed in every major formation left. The biggest representation they have is with Queen Val, four hundred warriors or so. The good news is that their non-fighters have reached Winterfell.

As for the alliterative names, completely surprised because it was unintentional...

Darthas: The ice wyverns frankly are dangerous, but more due to the strategic advantages, the aerial scouting and the messenger values they allow. One elite archer can kill one, which frankly is not the case with the dragons. Of course, there are a lot of them while the dragons are almost extinct...

 **Storm of Arrows**

 **The Battle of Volantis Part III**

 _Oh muse help me recount the tale of Aegon's city and its ruin  
Help me to picture the blackened ashes of a throng of dead  
Help me to bring forth the images of soldiers and small folk rent to naught but ash  
Let us remember with weary eyes and heavy hearts the loss of history and life to flames of a mad green dragon_

 _Tell me of the sundered remains of a city grown decadent  
Tell me of the thousands of stories never again to be told  
Mourn with me the loss of the lost history of an Age  
When Dragons sulked in metal pits, and a King sat upon a throne of Swords_

 _What lies there now is but a shadow of what once was  
A faded echo of glory long gone and a tragedy long remembered  
What takes generations to build takes only seconds to lay to waste  
Though in time the city of Aegon and his sisters may come to glory once again_

 _It is not for us to know the flow history will take amidst its currents and flows  
After the men fall silent and the field quiet are we not all food for the crows?  
The Tragedy of Green Fire, The Battle of Four Armies, that day claimed many names  
Yet in the end the only lesson we learn, is that all suffer when lords play their spiteful games..._

Extract from The Lay of Turin the Blind Poet, 303AC. Turin "the Blind Poet" was one of the survivors of the Volantene slave insurrection, who joined the troops of Daenerys Targaryen to Westeros as a follower of Archmaester Marwyn. Turin distinguished himself in the Second Battle of Dragonstone and the Battle of the Last Alliance, before participating in the reconstruction of King's Landing. His song and historical records are some of the most important records today for the historians and maesters studying the Essossi Apocalypse, the War of the Eight Kings and the Second Long Night. The originals can be seen in the Dragonslayer Tavern, one of the most famous establishment of King's Landing.

 _"Volantis has no Queen. And it doesn't need one."_ Triarch Malassos Borroro, 300AC.

 _"I love when a massacre happens without problems."_ General Visoros Torro, 300AC.

 _"The Targaryen are like every dragonlord. The negotiations will be short."_ Triarch Malassos Borroro, 300AC.

 _"Yes...let's talk. Again."_ Triarch Saena Lavenyr, 300AC.

In other circumstances, the inhabitants and soldiers mustered in and near Volantis would have reacted to the approach of Queen Daenerys and her army with panic, fear and chaos. If the period had been relatively calm. Which it was definitely not. With the great city of Volantis on a good path to become one of the greatest ruins of the world (though the lands of Old Valyria placed the bar impossibly high), Red Priests and former slaves fanatically resisting, not to mention a dragon having taken residence in the Temple of the Lord of Light, the surviving soldiers present had assisted to a succession of disasters, including the mutiny of several of their own warships and an election because the incumbent Triarchs had suffered a series of unfortunate accidents. By contrast, fifty-thousand Dothraki, six or seven thousand Unsullied and two dragons were more or less business as usual.

Although this view was perhaps a bit exaggerated, the Volantene preparations were thus much calmer than what an impartial observer would have expected from a population, an army and a navy having seen their capital burn due to the combination of a slave uprising and a dragon. That did not mean the situation was not grim. Fighting another battle while the previous one was not quite over inside Volantis was just asking for trouble. Well, more trouble. Then, there was the issue of the Dothraki being at the best of times a band of brutes, murderers, rapists and monsters, who made the rest of the world save the Others and a few magical abominations paltry clouds of locusts by comparison. If one wanted to be more pessimistic, there were the Unsullied to take into account. The elite infantry of Essos, dreaded and feared upon countless battlefields. Eunuchs or not, these men were given a pike in the right hand and a shield in the left before they were able to walk. Military campaigns had seen some of them continue to fight in spite of lacking several important parts of their anatomy. Hundreds of them were able to repulse Dothraki or sellsword ravages thorough history. There were thousands of them in the incoming army, animated by excellent reason to hate and wipe out the Volantenes. After that, the two dragons and the thousands of armed slaves coming behind these fearsome warriors were just extra-firepower. Especially given the minor fact they had still not been able to kill the reptile who had arrived here a while ago.

Already, the last persons having escaped Mantarys had arrived and were spreading terrifying rumours into the camp. The leaders of Mantarys having refused to yield to Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons had launched waves after waves of Dothraki into the city after the dragons Rhaegal and Drogon had burnt their way over the fortifications. Dragonfire was perhaps not the most powerful power having ever existed, but it was certainly in the top ten. The defenders had had no defence or tactic against a flying, fire-breathing lizard and had died trying to bring it down. Once a breach had been created in the walls it was all over. The slaves had been spared (well mostly, this was a battle and a chaotic one at that) but the nobility and the rest of the slaver classes of Mantarys saw first-hand how an assault of barbarians could destroy a culture which believed itself civilised. The battle of Mantarys had still cost around ten to twelve thousand Dothraki dead to Daenerys Targaryen; the lack of basic healers and medicine specialists among these savages ensured that any person seriously wounded died in short order. Some Sons of the Harpy made the casualty list go higher: clearly some of them had achieved to evade suspicion and hide themselves in the multitude of troops. Half a dozen didn't walk away as their victims revealed themselves more tenacious or alert than these assassins, but the identity of their leader remained a mystery for the time being.

Unfortunately for the forces stationed at Volantis, this ghastly number of dead was in no way a problem for the coalition under the Targaryen banner. Daenerys Targaryen had two dragons with her, and had mounted Drogon to rally more Dothraki to her cause once her army had finished walking the Demon Road (which despite the name, saw no demons appear to kill the travellers). The three Khals of the Dothraki busy raiding in this area chose to refuse the last Targaryen's allegiance demands. All of them saw their lives end in the maw of Drogon and Rhaegal, along with their bloodriders and loyal raiders. The rest, some fifteen thousand cavalrymen, bent the knee and rushed south to participate in the great battle which was no doubt going to happen. Volantis and its Black Walls had never been sacked in countless centuries, and the loot from such a conquest was quite enough to offset being ordered around by a woman. That the woman was very beautiful and the dragon she rode had very large fangs had nothing to do with the Dothraki thought process.

With Volantis able to muster less than forty thousand troops in total (and some of those were required to block the last Red Priests and their allies), the offer sent by Ser Barristan Selmy himself to open negotiations was a godsend for the new Triarchs and their citizens. Despite the awful rumours circulating about the Mother of Dragons, it was possible Queen Daenerys Targaryen was a reasonable woman. Anything avoiding a sack of the city was worthy to discuss anyway. This optimists point of view did not last long. The terms made by the former Kingsguard in the service of his Queen were simply too absolute and invasive. Freeing the slaves had been expected, and thanks to the uprising and how badly it had destroyed the Volantene economy, the diplomats were willing to accept this clause. Paying reparations for the war against Meereen was no problem as Meereen was in the wrong from the start in this conflict. Feeding the army having just arrived would be a major drain, but something which could be handled, on the condition Daenerys and her troops did not stay too long here. But the rest of the demands were simply too much. Giving the dragonlady power over their land and naval military forces for a campaign which was sure to entail some sort of fighting against Westeros was not in any Volantene best interests. Nor was the fact some of the followers of the Stormborn's army intended to stay at Volantis to start a new life. Volantene freed slaves would be a painful issue enough, despite having been vanquished and suffered misery for their bloody actions. Inviting thousands of insurgents who had triumphed over their masters to live in a place where slavery was not formally abolished was tantamount to let High Priest Benerro and his last supporters get away with their betrayal. But it was the last point which proved itself impossible to stomach for the Volantene envoys led by Triarch Aeros Soderro. Volantis would have to submit...and accept Daenerys Targaryen as its Queen. Most maesters and historians after the fact and for long decades have written and spoke lengthily about this mistake. The majority agree this error was due to Daenerys lack of proper upbringing in matters such as history and politics. Volantis in all its history had never had a monarch. It had a ruling caste, which after the Doom of Valyria had become the Old Blood to replace the defunct dragonlords. But any attempt of a man or a woman to place itself alone at the top of the social Volantene hierarchy during centuries of existence had always been met by the demise of the ambitious pretender. Volantis was a Republic. A republic of the wealthy with a large slave population, but a republic still. No monarch had reigned upon the Eldest Daughter of Valyria. And its soldiers were going to ensure none ever will. End of the discussion.

As Queen Daenerys Targaryen had the stubbornness of her ancestors, the talks broke here. Steel, the good old-fashioned answer for everything humanity could not solve by words, was going to be put to use. Dothraki warriors mounted their horses by the tens of thousands (more had come the Dothraki Sea during the four days of negotiation) and prepared for a charge which promised to be massive and glorious when one considered the numbers in play. A horn sounded a powerful note twice. And in an acclamation made by more than fifty thousand Dothraki, the charge began. The master horsemen had always one tactic: use their bows and the mobility conferred by their animals to launch rain of arrows after rain of arrows on the Volantene formations. Then they would move for the death blow and finish them with their arakhs. It was an unimaginative tactic, but with fifty thousand horsemen, nobody had felt subtlety was going to be necessary. Over their heads, the dragons Rhaegal and Drogon circled, waiting for an opportunity to incinerate the defenders. Volantis had chosen defiance, now it was going to receive the same fate as Mantarys.

This was when the Dothraki received from the first time a brutal shock meeting with reality. While the envoys debated, all the naval barges had been evacuated northwards. The civilians had fled beyond the Rhoyne and the Volaena rivers. And the troops had taken refuge behind the large walls, leaving no easy target for the attacking army. Not only that, but the defenders were not the Lhazarene sheep-owners the Dothraki were content to butcher every time they felt like it. This time, it was professional soldiers in the opposition, and many of the officers had known the strength and the weaknesses of the horse barbarians. The Dothraki in the first wave sent close to twenty thousand arrows against the walls of Volantis, which fell in great part harmlessly against the stone and the massive shields of the garrison. The Volantene answered back with close to twenty thousand arrows, three trebuchets, fifteen scorpions and nine ballistae.

Needless to say, it was an epic massacre. The defending side had all the advantages of a fortification, with them; the attackers were a large mass impossible to miss: if the Dothraki who was your target wasn't hit, then it was his horse or the Dothraki near him who perished. To make the situation even bloodier, the Dothraki did not wear any sort of armour. On a conventional battlefield, it was pure stupidity. Projectiles that would have been mere nuisances against Westerosi knights proved extremely deadly. Siege engines whose impact could have been lessened tore apart the Dothraki by the hundreds.

The worst thing was the fact the Dothraki refused to retreat despite the orders of Ser Barristan Selmy and Queen Daenerys Targaryen. Despite the issue that their Queen could not intervene with one siege engine targeting her dragons every time she came near the city, the mass of screaming horse lords did not relent in their assault efforts as long as there was light to fight. The good point from the Targaryen side was the depletion of a good part of the arrows reserves. The bad point was this lack of ammunition had been made at the price of thirty-six thousand dead Dothraki, with hundreds more crippled, dismounted or missing in the middle of this butchery.

After this one-sided massacre, the Targaryen forces did not launch any assault the next day, still under the shock of the magnitude of their losses. Triarch Malassos Borroro profited from this respite to order a general assault on the last Red Priests positions. Tired, underfed and undermanned, the last rebels had no more powerful magic save a few shadow assassins to oppose for their last stand. High Priest Benerro died on the grounds of the Temple of the Lord of Light. Most of his senior followers went down with him. The rest was simply pure and overt provocation: under the advice of the generals in command, Triarch Malassos Borroro ordered a detachment to drag one of the most powerful ballista on the Black Walls, the well-named Dragon-Crusher, in front of the Temple of the Lord of the Light. The objective was to threaten Daenerys Targaryen third dragon Viserion, in order to force her to come to negotiations.

Maybe it could have worked, if a man who was later identified as the exiled Jorah Mormont had not in the mean time angered Viserion enough to make the lizard sally out the Temple and fly towards liberty before the Dragon-Crusher was positioned. In spite of the commands of his former mistress, it took several hours for Daenerys Targaryen to subdue the not-so-submissive reptile with Drogon in a mock aerial battle. Ser Jorah Mormont, who had managed impressively to survive his meeting with Viserion, was immediately enchained to four elephants for his actions and died in an agonising manner. Ironically enough, such actions and others would drive Winterfell after everything was over to send a messenger thanking the Triarchs for their handling of this Northern traitor.

In the mean time, though, Volantis had no choice but to surrender after a brief period of negotiations. Bad enough that their opponents had now three dragons instead of two, but the arrows and the bolts stocks for the bows and the siege engines were reaching their bottoms. Volantis garrison could stop the dragons from accomplishing their deadly bombardment, but only for one or two day. And there was still the Unsullied and the rest of the Targaryen army to deal with, as the food and water situation was precarious. No, surrender was the better option. However, the ruling class of Volantis was infuriated. Daenerys Targaryen had the audacity to impose the same terms as before, plus a few more. Jorah Mormont had to be granted a majestic funeral. The three Triarchs had to be imprisoned for their crimes against the slave population, with a trial coming soon. Plus a few reforms touching the autonomy of Volantis judicial and governing system. Mentally ill at the idea of what the dragons would be able to do if the dragons were able to do if left unchecked, Triarchs Malassos Borroro, Aeros Soderro and Saena Lavenyr accepted the terms, letting Queen Daenerys Targaryen enter the city of Volantis. The Mother of the Dragons had barely the time to spend one night in the city, fortunately or unfortunately depending the point of view. News of the Westerosi campaigns and Braavosi naval actions had arrived by the intermediary of several messenger birds. If the last Targaryen wanted to reconquer the throne of the Seven Kingdoms, her future did not lay in Volantis...


	70. The Rebellion ends in flames

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Iron Islands or the Drowned God.

ProCannonFodder: Well, Northerners can really wait for their vengeance for a long, long time...and who knows what sort of tensions there will be between the Starks and the Targaryens?

X59: Daenerys had to let Volantis in a somewhat serviceable state from a logistical point of view. Her troops have to eat, and burning every city she arrives is not a policy which can be sustained in the long-term.

King's Landing will be rebuilt, yes. I've never said anything about it being a new capital.

As for being near the end, have no fear. We have quite a long time before the end of this story comes...

Paul: Oh, well. The wiki, the books and the appendixes are a lot of times in conflict with each other, so for the time being I will go with my version of the names. None of the Dreadfort men sent to the Night's Watch are still alive. They weren't the most disciplined of troops and took heavy casualties in every assault.

I'm almost certain GRRM don't plan on Benjen not being the Night's King in canon. Of course, it assumes there's going to be a Night's King at all. GRRM rapidity and all of that...Robb will not be a kinslayer. When one person is fighting for the White Walkers, then this person deserves to be annihilated. Family or not. Tormund Giantsbane was pretty much the only Free Folk chief of renown falling in the battle of the Wall. The wildling leadership has taken so much a beating the commanders are pretty much non-entities compared to Val. Rodrik Cassel commands the garrison of Winterfell. The Karstarks are commanding the occupation of the Westerlands.

The only noble of note from the Riverlands participating in the last battle was Patrek Mallister. He's regrouping with Robb Stark forces. Otherwise, most of the troops were low infantry, because the horses and the troops from that kingdom weren't trained and equipped to fight so far from their homes. Clydas is dead. This ugly man had been sent to tend the ravens of Long Barrow, but due to his age and his lack of skills he was not evacuated in priority and as a result perished against the blade of an Other.

Concerning the Sons of the Harpy, the methods Daenerys used to 'defeat' them pretty much guaranteed a large minority were going to survive. She and her army really lack a decent intelligence network.

And now let's return to the Iron Islands...

 **The Rebellion ends in flames**

 **The Second Greyjoy Rebellion Part IX**

 _"They say my father forbid Victarion to kill the Crow's Eye years ago for what he did to his wife. In this like in many things, my father was an imbecile."_ Lady Asha Greyjoy after the fall of Pyke, 301AC.

 _"We expected an ocean of enemies. We got a dragon. Never say the Gods don't have a sense of humour."_ Acting-Maester Qyburn, 301AC.

 _"Then go. But I will not flee from my responsibilities. I am a Greyjoy...and what is dead may never dies."_ Last words of Theon Greyjoy, 300AC.

 _"Dreadwing... a perfect name for this evil and vicious beast."_ Ser Barristan Selmy, 301AC.

The hostilities between King Stannis Baratheon and Robb Stark may have unofficially ended, but there was a theatre where the fighting unleashed by the War of the Eight Kings was not finished. The Sunset Sea, scene of impressing naval battles and countless slaughters, was still bleeding, the Reach warriors murdering every last follower of the deceased King Euron Greyjoy they could find their hands on.

The Ironborn were in a sort of political grey area as far as every lord in Westeros was concerned. On the paper signed by King Robb Stark, Lady Asha Greyjoy and her brother Theon at Riverrun, Casterly Rock and the Iron Islands had become vassals of the Kingdom of the North and the Trident. But it was not because the lords of the Riverlands and the other parts of the realm ruled by the Young Wolf had suddenly found a deep sense of friendship with House Greyjoy. The attempted burning of Deepwood Motte, the raids on the Stony Shore, the attack on Moat Cailin and plenty of other raids were as much reasons not to trust the Ironborn. Unfortunately, with the wildlings and then the Others creating massive threats on the northernmost frontier, the Northerners found themselves short on manpower and naval power to conquer the Iron Islands. With Asha Greyjoy offering plenty of gold in the mean time and stabilising the Westerlands, everyone concluded the punishment of this band of pirates could wait another day. Lord Jason Mallister was going to profit from the occasion to settle the surviving thralls on the Cape of Eagles, and plenty of bloodthirsty sellswords which had become major hindrances were ridden of by finding their end against insurgents or reavers.

The problem was that the very nature of the alliance, the Ironborn left alive after the departures of nearly every man able to wield an axe or a sword knew very well the chances of Robb Stark or any of his senior commanders sending reinforcements if another threat manifested itself were virtually null. Lord Rickard Karstark had very firm orders from his monarch to ensure Casterly Rock didn't change ownership again, but there was no contingency for the Iron Islands. It was doubtful anyway the men under the banner of the white sun would have tolerated fighting side by side with them.

As a result, newly-installed Lord Theon Greyjoy found himself severely short of warriors as the first days of 301AC arrived. His sister had sailed back to Casterly Rock with her elite troops once his coronation and the murder of her "husband" were over. Lord Rodrik Harlaw and Lord Quellon Blacktyde acted similarly, their islands in dire need of their ruler to rebuild and reorganise the bleeding holes in their social structure. A not insignificant minority of the reformist and moderate islanders decided to settle in the new lands of the West. The thralls and a good part of the local workforce had already departed or were dead. The coming days promised to be quite difficult, as the temperatures fell, storms wrecked the shores of the islands and the finances of every Noble House were in tatters. The rapacity and short-slightness of Balon Greyjoy had made sure no one wanted to trade with the Ironborn for obvious reasons. When the women aboard a ship were in danger of being raped no matter their status, the cargo seized to pay the iron price and the captain sold in slavery because a longship captain had decided the merchant was a fat and juicy prize, people avoided these waters like they were rampant of diseases, and the acts of the Crow's Eye had only made the general problem worse.

The lack of supplies, as dramatic as it was, revealed to be only the second most important problem Lord Theon Greyjoy had to face as a lord. The last longship of House Goodbrother having escaped the fall of the Arbor had at last reached Pyke, and according to its crew, a massive fleet of the Reach was on its way with red eyes and an inextinguishable thirst for blood, quite understandable given the atrocities committed by the reavers along the Mander, on the Arbor and the Shield Islands. In spite of the distance and the logistical difficulties it entailed, Lord Garlan Tyrell and his subordinate Hightower commanders would have somewhere between six and eight thousand infantrymen to debark at Pyke. To face these enraged Southern knights and men-at-arms, Lord Theon Greyjoy had barely under a thousand men, counting the elderly and the teenager. The armoury, the supplies of arrows, the siege engines; everything was falling into disrepair at Pyke, and by its geographic position the chief fortress of the Iron Islands was going to be the first assaulted. And when it fell, as it was unavoidable considering the overwhelming numbers of incoming enemies, the rest of the Iron Islands except perhaps Harlaw would fall with it. Because as under-defended the island of Pyke was, the rest of the archipelago was in a worst state. Messengers were sent in all haste to the Riverlands, the Westerlands and the North, asking for troops and protections assurances. With the Iron Fleet busy rampaging along the Orange shore, there was no naval shield to defend the home of House Greyjoy. Given that the North and the Riverlands were preparing to fight an invasion of White Walkers, these alarmed screams went ignored. Lady Asha Greyjoy could have sent a few ships from the Western coast and provided scouts to screen the advance of the Reach navy, but the sole daughter of the deceased King Balon was trying to consolidate her position in the Westerlands, chasing Daven Lannister and his band from the ruins of Tarbeck Hall and negotiating treaties with the Brotherhood of the Hound. The woman warrior who had taken the ancestral home of House Lannister was not interested in sending her forces piecemeal against a fleet she knew pertinently they had no chance to defeat. Pyke was as good as gone; the few troops which could be spared at the Banefort were ferried across the straights to reinforce Ten Towers.

The defenders of Pyke unsheathed their weapons, did rapid reparations to erase the damage they had done themselves when they invaded, and posted the best watchers they had to warn them of the incoming Southern invaders. Alas, five days after a raven coming from Feastfires had noticed the Tyrell fleet bypassing them, doom came to the Iron Islands. Not in form of a fleet, oh no. The end had taken a far more sinister aspect, those of a black dragon erupting flames so powerful the fire-breathing reptile appeared to be a demon from the Seven Hells to those having the opportunity to see it. Dreadwing has come to the Iron Islands.

To know what the dragon born of the Crow's Eye magical experiments was doing here, it was necessary to come back a bit of time in the past. After the battle of the Doom of Kings, Dreadwing had fled northwards, wounded and making a noise terrorising every living being leagues in the vicinity. Whether it was the dark magic surrounding him or the legendary resilience of the dragon species, the dragon survived and started to hunt what had become in his short existence his favourite prey: humans. Flying westwards, Dreadwing consumed cows, sheep, boars and stags too, but it was his tendency to prey among men and women which was the most remarked for some reason. A dragon could travel fast, so it was no surprise Dreadwing was able to fly from Highgarden to the Northern Marches in a matter of days once it had recovered its forces. And then fate struck again. One of the war galleys under Lord Garlan Tyrell had been damaged in a storm and was replenishing its supplies south of Crakehall when Dreadwing stumbled over them. It went without saying that the men who were ashore had absolutely no chance. The dragon eliminated them in a single pass of flames. The men aboard the galley, sworn to House Hightower, managed to arm the ballista in time and force the dragon to...be more careful. The Reach galley raced northwards, trying to catch up with the main body of the fleet, unaware they had in fact bypassed the naval force in the obscurity. And Dreadwing was still following them in the distance, sometimes landing to hunt on land but never for long. And then the hunt continued, with men in the unpleasant position of the prey.

In other circumstances, a war galley racing from Crakehall to Pyke at top speed would have been an impressive achievement in its own right. The captain and its crew, sadly, had other issues than celebrating their exploit and immediately upon landing took their legs and ran for their lives like a demon was after them. It was not far from the truth. Dreadwing was really close behind, and a lot of men were too slow in leaving the condemned hull. In a grey, dark morning, Lord Theon Greyjoy and Lord Symond Botley assisted to the incredible spectacle of a black dragon pursuing the Reach sailors and picking and devouring them one by one, confirming by the way the rumours of viciousness and cruelty had not been far-fetched tales.

Five years before, Balon Greyjoy and thousands of reavers would have been ready to sally out of the dark seastone fortress to slay the dragon and gain eternal glory in the Halls of the Drowned God. But as Acting-Maester Qyburn, main chronicler witnessing the event wrote it: "the second Greyjoy Rebellion had done an excellent job of erasing the stupid and the imbeciles." The Ironborn who were left at Lordsport under Theon Greyjoy estimated the odds against them...and ran like hell towards the interior of the island. To be fair, it was hardly cowardice. The ballista and scorpions had no magic bolt or arrow left from a mystical cache to slay the lizard. When it came down to it in fact, they had hardly any ammunition at all, and the beast coming right at them had very large claws, very large fangs, very large teeth and a breath so hot it as able to melt stone twenty feet from where it struck. No, fleeing was the logical decision. For those who were willing to argue with that, the sight of Lordsport burning in less than one hour was enough to discourage any warrior wanting to do a glorious and epic charge.

Once the main harbour of the Iron fleet was gone, it was the turn of Pyke. The problem the garrison of the castle faced was not pretty. The home of House Greyjoy was particularly easy to defend when the enemy was human and a powerful force defended the walls. Neither of said points was true for this attack. A dragon had by nature the air superiority, and Pyke had no rampart between towers, just instable wood bridges which were consumed the moment dragonfire touched them. Every fighter having the really bad luck to pass on them at this moment was sent in a deep fall of hundred feet or more below. None survived.

It went without saying that after Dreadwing ruptured three of the passages needed to circulate between the different parts of Pyke Castle, all coordination and cohesion were lost amongst the defenders. Lord Theon Greyjoy was inexperienced, having passed the majority of the war in captivity at Riverrun, and even if he had not, his men were terrified of the dragon and had nothing to strike it down. Arrows unleashed by bows and crossbows did nothing to penetrate the skin of the beast. After thirty minutes of unsuccessful attempts to bring the dragon down, Dreadwing incinerated the Sea Tower. The resistance ended there. From the gatehouse, hundreds of Ironborn sallied out, remembering the fate of Harren Hoare at Harrenhal. In spite of Lord Theon's call to stay and fight, everyone abandoned the fortress to find safety elsewhere. As the dragon concentrated his flames to reduce the black citadel into a pile of rubble, their rout went relatively unopposed. One hour later, the entirety of Pyke Castle was in flames, and Dreadwing flew away, the monster's rage sated for the day.

Of Lord Theon Greyjoy, there was no trace. The last son of Balon Greyjoy had stayed behind when all his vassals ran with their tails between their legs, shooting arrows from the top of the Great Keep tower at his monstrous enemy. Alone with a sole longbow, the contest had been unequal to say the least, and the burning tower in the distance was spectacular. Yet, the writings of Acting-Maester Qyburn revealed quite another truth. Seconds before his end, the last Lord of the Iron Islands had managed to shoot a last arrow, striking the dark breast and removing one scale. Thus the seeds of Dreadwing death were planted upon that fateful day, and one day another legendary archer would strike the beast down.

For the last inhabitants of Pyke, the situation remained catastrophic. They had no home anymore. Pyke and Lordsport were only ashes and devastation, haunted ruins bearing significant resemblances to Harrenhal. The food and water supplies had been torched by the dragon, as did most of the furs and the clothes needed to survive winter. Lord Garland Tyrell and the arrival of his fleet as a consequence was cheered, an act of supreme irony if there ever was one considering the Reachers had intended to do the next best thing to a mass extermination. Lord Symond Botley, senior noble having survived, immediately surrendered, officially ending the Second Greyjoy Rebellion. The Southern sailors did not stay on Pyke more than a week. Evacuating the refugees took priority now and it was evident there were few houses and habitations left standing across the entire island. Revenge would have been sweet, but it appeared the dragon of their own enemies had returned itself against them. Now, with the Ironborn threat dealt a blow they would never recover in centuries, it was time to go fighting the only conflict which really mattered. Because if the White Walkers won, ultimately the fate of Pyke would be the one of all the Seven Kingdoms...


	71. Snow and Blood

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the North or the Last Hearth.

The Gnome: Indeed, though Dale was rebuilt in the end after Smaug was killed. The fortress of Pyke will not have such a nice fate, I'm afraid.

Supremus85: Glad two persons caught the reference. Theon was brave, yes, but it was also despair that pushed him to this last act of courage. He didn't want to be the Lord of only ruins and ashes.

X59: I have always the impression archers are underestimated in Westeros. But frankly, against a Dragon is pretty much useless. The fire-breathing reptile is going to burn you well before the sword or the spear gets in range.

As for Rodrik Harlaw and Quellon Blacktyde...first they will pray Dreadwing does not come their way because they have really no magical bullet to stop the dragon on their own. Their castles are in a better state than Pyke, but the chances of stopping the reptile aren't what you can describe as good. The survivors will be evacuated towards Harlaw, Asha's possessions or Seagard. Few will choose to stay. Concerning Barristan's quote, he will see it in action...

Paul: Well, Qyburn in this story has managed to dissociate himself from the Brave Companions and had not practised necromancy yet. The Ironborn and the different factions aren't going to kill a man experienced in esoteric knowledge and healing, as long as he doesn't do really disturbing things in public. Qyburn will have his part to play before the end.

Speaking about Balon, yes, his reputation is low at the moment and decreasing by the second. I thought about including former members of Theon's crew, honestly, but didn't see the opportunity. When everyone flees in panic, it's kind of hard to make yourself a name...

This chapter isn't about the Vale, we are going back to the North. Maybe the next one, unless I go back to Essos or Stannis...

 **Snow and Blood**

 **The Battle of the North Part I**

 _"The roots of the North are deep and the frost will never reach them."_ Hother 'Whoresbane' Umber, 301AC.

 _"Don't rejoice too quickly. They will come back."_ Lady Maege Mormont, aftermath of the First Battle of Bear Island, 301AC.

 _"For the love of Old Gods, never, ever, try to fight clansmen in these mountains. They will murder you."_ Lord Daryn Hornwood, 301AC.

 _"Winter is coming. Winter is coming for all of us."_ Anonymous Northerner, 301AC.

Once the Wall had fallen, all realistic chances to stop the White Walkers had collapsed with it. Perhaps if the entire military force of the Seven Kingdoms previous to the War of the Eight Kings had been present, as well as armed with dragonglass, Valyrian steel and fire, there would have been a chance to meet the Others in an open battle. But it was all speculation and hypothesis. The civil war immediately following King Robert I's death had happened, dividing and tearing apart Westeros at the worst moment possible, killing tens of thousands soldiers and hundreds of thousands smallfolk. And instead of the mustered men-at-arms, knights and lords of an entire realm at the Wall, only a meagre and late coalition of the North, Free Folk and Night's Watch had arrived in time to oppose a desperate resistance. Now this army had been dispersed and beaten, though not completely annihilated. The ancient enemy was going to plunge deep into the lands where humanity lived. It was going to be terrible.

Initially, King Robb Stark and his main commanders had hoped avoiding this kind of mass destruction by fortifying Last Hearth, seat of House Umber, and forcing the Night's Queen to decimate her own army by trying to storm this defensive position. Without the support of her ice dragon and the ice wyverns, it could have been a promising plan. But Lord Jon 'Greatjon' Umber was the first to affirm this plan was pure folly. The Last Hearth outer wall was a simple wall of stone, which would not slow down the ice spiders more than a few seconds. Once passed, the only fortification left was the residence of House Umber, an oversized fort of solid proportions which would have been considered solid under any normal circumstances. Considering the White Walkers had just proved they were able to pass and demolish a seven hundred feet tall wall, the Umber walls would not be that much an issue. Furthermore, there was not sufficient food and all war supplies for the five thousand plus men of their force at Last Hearth. Should the Night's Queen decide to settle for a long siege or leave enough troops to surround them, the Northern army would starve and wither in the darkness of the Long Night. No, Last Hearth could not be held against what was coming to kill the men, women and children. Once this was agreed, the real issue was where to go.

Winterfell, House of House Stark, was undoubtedly a powerful enough citadel to repulse the assault of the Others and was well provisioned for winter. On the other hand, a significant number of non-fighters, Northerners and Free Folk had been sent there and no one amongst the followers of Robb Stark felt glad at the idea of attracting the attention of the Others towards more victims, some of them being their own families. White Walkers had no mercy in their bodies, this point had been brutally made clear at the Wall. If Winterfell walls didn't held, it would be pure murder and a butchery of endless proportions. Nevertheless, it left only one alternative, the fortresses in this part of the North built to withstand an assault of these abominations being not legion. The Dreadfort.

As it happened, choosing this place to withdraw brought other issues, some minor, some graver. First, the smallfolk and non-fighter population of Last Hearth had to be entirely evacuated to the Dreadfort too. There was no point to pretend the ancestral home of House Umber wasn't going to fall if the Northern army didn't defend it, and any corpses created by this defeat would mean more wights to fight and destroy when the real battles began. Secondly, the majority of the horses couldn't go with them. The travel between the lands of House Umber and Bolton treacherous, first by a rapid descent towards the Last River and then a march through the Lonely Hills. For small horses, ponies and mules, the recently formed ice and the bad terrain conditions were no hurdle. For the powerful coursers and war horses, this was an insurmountable obstacle, especially as these animals required more food, care and help to keep their beast health compared to their lesser but more robust cousins. As a consequence, the majority of the heavy cavalry left, some six hundred men, broke contact, increased their speed and rushed southwards towards Winterfell. Commanding them were Patrek Mallister and Queen Val, with several cousins of House Umber's main branch serving as subordinate commanders. The rest of the army and the civilians descended the Last River in the direction of the Dreadfort, and it was hoped, safety.

One hundred and eighty-seven men and women stayed behind at Last Hearth to cover the retreat. The elderly. The heavily injured. The few who had decided they couldn't abandon their living place. In tactical and strategic terms, there should not have been any real need to do so. The Night's Queen had sent pursuit forces against the mountain clans in the Western Peaks and Bear Island, but the former defenders of Castle Black, Nightfort and the centre portion of the Wall had been able to withdraw relatively unopposed. A lone wight here and there, the scream of an ice wyvern in the distance, the snow storms and the weather becoming sometimes colder than the most terrible blizzard were the only signs of the Others humans were able to perceive. Alas, the millennia where there had been no sighting of White Walkers had taken their toll. Orders to burn the dead ignored. Summons to arms disdained in far-away forests, hills and mountains. Demands to abandon the defenceless homes and retrench in fortified works forgotten the moment the messenger bearing the news departed with plenty of people joking the man had had too much beer or another alcoholic beverage in his system. The small and unimportant bannersmen of House Umber, those which military strength were in the single digits or even lower, were in this the representatives of the entire North, no representatives of a great majority of the Seven Kingdoms. As long as a wight or a White Walker was not seen, many of those having not any fast means of communication refused to believe the rumours. Too many didn't acknowledge the truth until the Wall broke and the Enemy came. King Robb Stark and his troops managed to save a lot of the Northern population, mainly on the axis of the Kingsroad and the Last River. The decision to order the Karstark bannersmen to withdraw to Karhold and play dead for the time being also saved countless lives.

But for every Northerner male or female who was able to escape on his life, there was one who had the stubbornness to resist the orders of the King in the North, not wanting to abandon his material possessions to a supposed legendary threat. If it had been a hoax, such character would have been admirable. Since the Others were as real as it was possible however, it diverted time, men and resources in the North hour of greatest need. There was nothing admirable in this, though it gave a few hundred more persons to defend Last Hearth before the general assault of the wights started.

It did not change anything. As it had been predicted and feared, the Night's Queen had lost too many of her elite Others shock troops to take a chance by leading personally the assault on Last Hearth. Within two hours of the ice and death army reaching the seat of House Umber, about twenty thousand wights of human and wildlings charged and climbed the outer wall to storm the last bastion opposing their advances towards the South. Hother Umber, who had demanded and obtained the honour to lead the defence of his home in this darkest hour, did the best he could to repulse the insults of life emerging from humanity darkest nightmares. But by simple calculus, the soldiers of Last Hearth could not kill every single wight coming their way. Humans tired, had no night vision. No matter the motivation, a live soldier couldn't rise after being skewered by the axe of an undead. The resistance of Last Hearth was overwhelmed. Waves after waves of monsters surged upon the condemned citadel.

For the White Walkers who watched the scene with glee, this moment of victory was undoubtedly really indigestible in the aftermath. Because House Umber had had a last card to play. While almost no one remembered the origins of Last Hearth, each lord of House Umber was told the secret when he came in the age of manhood. Under the Umber keep, lied the roots of what had been in ancient times a gigantic weirdwood. Upon hearing the last of his men died holding their positions, Hother Umber complied with the orders of his liege lord and marched to the nexus where all the roots met in a white heart. In a deep moment of sacrifice and with his three last household guards as witnesses, the man who had been nicknamed Whoresbane opened his veins and let his blood pour over the white wood.

Instantly, a blinding light manifested itself at Last Hearth, illuminating the fallen castle in a flash that was seen hundreds of leagues away. When the three last men recovered enough vision to move, they saw Hother Umber dead lying on a large root, smiling as if the old man had gone for a peaceful sleep. His sacrifice had not been in vain. Last Hearth was now completely silent, and the army surrounding it had been morally crushed. All the wights and the few White Walkers having passed the outer wall were now lying in the snow deprived of life. Hother Umber had lost his life at the price of nearly seven thousands wights and fifty White Walkers. The scream of rage emitted by the Night's Queen in the frozen wastes was particularly satisfying.

Apparently after this humiliating defeat, the leadership of the White Walkers was in no mood to attack Last Hearth again and risk the destruction of a sizeable part of their assembled remaining wight forces. Which was good, because the three men still alive had absolutely no chance to repeat the feat, lacking the blood ability to reactivate this magic phenomenon. That was not to say the survivors jumped in joy. Last Hearth might be safe for now, but there were three massive breaches in the outer wall, hundreds of bodies had to be burned before the antic magic faded, and the Umber fortress was still surrounded by a couple of thousand wights. No man would be able to escape, and the three lone men would maintain in the dead keep for the rest of the war.

In the mean time, ranks upon ranks of wights and White Walkers marched southwards in a deathly atmosphere. Their numbers had been thinned, but there were thousands of the ice beings and the reserves of corpses were replenished the further they advanced in the North. The plains of the North were burning of the pyres the living made for their dead, but these improvised alarm fires. Slowly but surely, the army of terror divided in tow massive prongs of attack. The first, commanded by the Night's Queen herself, followed the withdrawing army of King Robb Stark towards the Dreadfort. The other descended the Kingsroad with Winterfell as their new target. The two main fortresses of the North were going to have to repulse the fury of winter soon.

Unfortunately, this was not the only place where the White Walkers were on the offensive. On the Frozen Shore a new army of White Walkers had gathered, and about fifteen days after the last fort of the Night's Watch fell, the Others froze the sea and cross southwards to attack Bear Island. This attack, unlike the ones having happened at the Wall and at Last Hearth, had almost no shield of wights but plenty of ice spiders and wyverns. The Others learnt rapidly it was not sufficient. Lady Maege Mormont and Commander Blane had managed to recover all the western supplies of dragonglass, and without the distraction of the wights, the Northern archers were free to make a carnage in the ranks of their ice enemies. The First Battle of Bear Island, as it would be called afterwards, was a major defeat for the White Walkers, their forces routed after barely an hour of assault. In hindsight, freezing the sea guaranteed your opponents knew the attacker was coming and the Northerners had prepared accordingly.

It was not the only theatre where the Others were meeting unexpected difficulties. In the Western Peaks of the North too, the corpses and the monstrous soldiers were dying in droves. On the contrary of the assault on Bear Island, it was the White Walkers reliance on wights in this fight which caused problems. In a mountainous environment, the dead servants of the Others were at a disadvantage, being pushed in the precipices by their enemies, crushed by giant boulders, pulverised by rock and snow avalanches. To say the truth, most of the traps conceived by the troops of Daryn Hornwood and the Northern mountain clans were sufficient to kill an elite soldier of the White Walker. Or at least to cripple it so badly it was easy to eliminate the ice being. What they did to dead humans or animals which had no instinct of self-preservation was ghastly and awful. Spectacles of wights plunging by the hundreds in a precipice once their Other controller was no more would haunt the veterans of the Long Night until their last breath.

Nonetheless, these defeats administered by the humans to the abominations practising human genocide were not on the main front, and in some way didn't matter for the moment. A new wave of wights and Others had exterminated the defenders of Skagos, using a fleet of icebergs to cross the Bay of Seals, and now this unconventional fleet was floating on the Shivering Sea, preparing to engage any target of opportunity. The forces having breached the Wall were now approaching the Dreadfort and Winterfell. If these citadels resisted, the Northern victories would prove capital to organise a counter-attack. If they fell, the defeats of the Others would have only slowed the progression of the darkness for mere days...


	72. The Falcon has fallen

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Vale or the Eyrie.

Eduard Kassel: I decided to make the ice spiders real animals, but which happen to share the same weaknesses as the Others who mount them. The White Walkers have bred them for millennia so it's far from an illogical explanation.

As for Titanic versus zombies...I knew somehow I wouldn't escape it with last news about Leonardo Dicaprio...

A simple reader: The Others fleet is 'pushed' by sorcery, not by normal means. Still, it remains extremely slow at the best of times. That's the good news. The bad news is that unlike warships, sinking icebergs is quite over the capacities available to the Westerosi.

Stannis is in the Riverlands by now and approaching the Trident. He will appear in the next chapter.

X59: The news of the Wall falling have been communicated to every major House of the North by raven. So everyone in the vicinity of the major castles, towns and cities has been warned the White Walkers are coming. But for the small villages and the hamlets in the wilderness, the only means of communication is by messengers on horse and sometimes by foot when the landscape is too dangerous. The North is vast and some of its inhabitants are cut from the outside world in summer. In quite a few parts, rumours need time to spread and the Others are more legends than fact after eight thousand years if you have no witness in the proximity. Although to be honest Northerners are more prepared to believe the return of the Great Enemy than the rest of Westeros...

Paul: Oh, I perfectly agree Qyburn is not a nice person. And every person who hires him firmly intends to kick him out as soon as they don't need him anymore. And no, the Greatjon is not an unruly barbarian with two cells inside his brain. As Roose Bolton himself said in canon, you don't survive hundreds of years without having a certain sort of low cunning in you. The Umber are strong and confident in their abilities, But they are not stupid. If the Wall couldn't hold the White Walkers with a full army, the odds of Last Hearth are inexistent. Mors Umber is still alive with the main army.

Apart Dacey who is at Winterfell, all the daughters of Maege Mormont are participating in the defence of Bear Island, with various degrees of implication depending their age. Maester Luwin has officially admitted he was deeply in the wrong concerning Others and the majority of supernatural threats. Though it is far from the only shock he has received in the last months.

And now let's go to the Vale...

 **The Falcon has fallen**

 **War comes to the Vale Part IV**

 _"Where was the Vale when my brother fought his wars? Where was the Vale when I was imprisoned at King's Landing? Where was the Vale when the Other armies surged across the North by the tens of thousands?"_ Princess Sansa Stark, 301AC.

 _"The Vale has tolerated your madness for far too long, milady."_ Lord Yohn Royce to Lady Lysa Arryn, 301AC.

 _"You say the Faith of Seven will not tolerate abominations like the Others existing. I don't think the White Walkers care a lot about what you think. And I have yet to see a miracle from the Seven in my life."_ Ser Rickard Woolsfield to Septon Leonard, 301AC.

 _"The Vale. Easy to conquer if you have dragons."_ Princess Arya Stark, 303AC.

 _"We of House Royce remember. But I don't think many others in the Vale do. "_ Lord Yohn Royce to Ser Rickard Woolsfield, 301AC.

By any outsiders' perspective, the new rise to power of House Royce in 300AC was not a tremendous success. True, the influence of the Mad Widow was now safely restricted to the Eyrie and Yohn Royce was a respected lord and leader of men, but in many ways it was too late. The Vale had had the opportunity and the means to intervene decisively in the War of the Eight Kings, and there was little doubt the addition of at least twelve thousand men on any side would have elevated a King to the now collapsed Iron Throne. The East would have been potentially in the place of the Lannisters after Robert's Rebellion. Instead it had been forced to fight a civil war on the eve of winter. It was quite a downfall in term of projected military power and global influence. And the problems weren't over by a long shot.

First, because the civil war which had begun with the death of Harrold Hardyng was not over. Gulltown and Wickenden may have been defeated and the main Arryn loyalists' factions dispersed, but there were still knights and men-at-arms who continued the struggle. Not because they had any loyalty for the son of Jon Arryn. Robert was a sick child that was widely considered at the moment unfit to lead a sizeable group of sheep with trained dogs to help him. These soldiers had other reasons to be opposed to a Royce victory. For some, it was their voluntary participation in the general bribery and corruption having reigned while Robert I was king. Others had traditional enmities against House Royce, House Waynwood, House Redfort or another major group of nobles having rebelled. Together, these minor nobles had so little strength combining them in a single place would have given a number well below one thousand. Unfortunately for Yohn Royce and his supporter, there was never going to be an open battle in this case, just a long succession of raids, ambushes and counter-operations to hunt the insurgents. There was also House Lynderly to deal with. Lord Jon Lynderly, his heir and his remaining forces were besieged in the Snakewood castle, but so far had not manifested a great enthusiasm to surrender, tying hundreds of Belmore, Corbray and Coldwater troops which could have been better employed elsewhere.

All of this was unfortunate, but paled in front of the second problem. The Eyrie, the highest built castle of the world, was still in the hands of a madwoman. The original plan formulated by the lords and the ladies gathered six hundred feet below at the Gates of the Moon had been to ignore Lysa Arryn, confident starvation and the freezing cold would force the men and women to desert in short order. This vision of things was somewhat perturbed when the meagre garrison situated on top of the Lance began throwing large rocks in the valley below, perhaps hoping to provoke an avalanche which would bury the Royce coalition. Well, that was a possible explanation. Lysa Arryn had abandoned all pretences of sanity after all. The Lords of the Vale grimaced, and then agreed to change their strategy. The Gates of the Moon were a valuable castle; they were not going to let a handful guards serving the widow of their former lord destroy the heart of the Vale. A few dozen experienced men were selected to begin the assault of the Eyrie. None in the leadership really expected the assault to succeed, but there was a good chance the residents of the Arryn citadel were lacking food, water and motivation. Maybe a show of force would force them to surrender and end this folly.

They shouldn't have bothered. The rocks only fell during three days, and at an increasingly slower rate, as the forces of the men diminished and the food supplies met their end. Finally, everybody in the Eyrie had had enough of this ridiculous farce. Lysa Arryn last fanatical supporters were thrown out of the Moon Door after a brief episode of bloodshed which caused officially twenty-five deaths (though there were rumours a bard of lesser talent was beaten to death with his instrument before been sent to his final resting place) and the white castle of marble surrendered. The Mad Widow was shown to Lord Protector Yohn Royce in chains and with the last apple of the food reserves in her mouth to silence her erratic rants. Presenting Robert Arryn however, proved to be impossible. The only son of Jon Arryn had always been a frail child, and had not survived the miserable conditions that came with living in high altitude in the middle of snow storms, ice and lack of costly medicines to cure his condition. With his death, the proud, honourable and long-existing House Arryn came to an end.

Funerals of circumstances were organised in all haste, leaving the nobility wonder how they were going to treat their third problem. The inter-kingdom diplomatic relationships. Or rather in the Vale case, the utter lack of these links. During close to two years, there had been no knight, lord or emissary to represent the interests of House Arryn and its sworn Noble Houses in the other Six Kingdoms. Oh, there had always been the odd second or third son like Robar Royce serving one of the numerous claimants for the throne, but these warriors generally were their own representatives. And moreover, by the time the Wall was breached, the vast majority were dead and buried over the huge number of battlefield spread across Westeros. Needless to say, this absence had been absolutely not in the Vale's favour. House Stark and House Tully of the Riverlands had demanded military help, as it had been agreed in the days of Robert's Rebellion, and were met only by silence. The messengers of King Stannis were turned back with laughter and derision. To make the matters even more complicated, Lysa Arryn had ordered the arrest of the Northern delegation sent at the Bloody Gate in one of her frequent paranoia crisis. Unlike Ser Donnel Waynwood who had suffered the same fate for the same motive but being confined in comfortable quarters, their treatment was far more alike to the treatment of the deceased Lord Eddard Stark in the Black Cells. Of the fifty-plus delegation, three were dead from the injuries they had received when the Vale soldiers subdued them, six were ill and all the survivors nourished a deep loathing of the eastern Houses when Ser Donnel Waynwood ordered their liberation. Half of the men (and the most senior ones) immediately departed for Winterfell or Riverrun to report how badly their mission had been compromised. The rest went under the command of Ser Rickard Woolsfield to the Gates of the Moon.

Neither side was really ready for the demands of their counterparts. After being ignored for so long while they battled the Lannisters in the burning Riverlands, the Northerners had forged in their minds a cowardly picture of the Valemen, confident when it came to abuse a lonely dwarf unable to defend himself, but firmly retrenched in their solid towers when the hour came to unleash their armies on the battlefield. In front of them, the lords following the lead of Runestone were not exactly shining with happiness. A large majority of the coalition formed by Lord Yohn Royce had never wanted independence from the Iron Throne in the first place, a quite understandable position considering the privileged place House Arryn had occupied before and after the fall of the Targaryen line. Some knights considered the Northerners as troublemakers and not fit to be included in the real Seven Kingdoms. The North was not following the Seven or the laws of chivalry, after all. And it was the North which had been involved in the destruction of King's Landing.

These critics revealed a deep sense of misunderstanding between the two sides, although to be honest the Vale noblemen were by far the most ignorant how the events had played out outside their lands. For the inhabitants of the eastern valleys, the last view they had had of Westeros before Lysa Arryn closed their borders was one of prosperity and abundance. Despite the rumours coming from everywhere, the tales of foreign traders and the ravens coming from time to time, few realised the extent of the destruction and the ravages having been done, actions which made the Vale civil war looks like a child quarrel. The Westeros of Robert I, the one they idolised, didn't exist anymore. A new one, one of danger, hardship, disunion, magic and ancestral treats, had taken its place.

From Ser Rickard Woolfield's writings and his few subordinates' reports, the impression the Northerners had was the new Lord Protector understood some of their concerns, being a veteran of Robert's Rebellion and being aware of the hardships brought by bloodshed. The rumours of the Master of Coin's being involved somehow with Lysa Arryn helped somehow. Alas, the Mad Widow had burnt a good part of her incriminating correspondence with the capital and the rest of Westeros. Thus a good part of the Knightly Houses and minor Noble Houses rejected the propositions of joining the Kingdom of the North and the Trident, or even the prospect of a mutual defensive alliance from the start. It didn't help that for the common Vale smallfolk or highborn, the assaults of the wildlings and the Others were treated respectively as none of their concern and fantastic dreams. Even the defeat at the Wall would not end the scepticism of some influent figures until it was way too late.

Ultimately, the talks broke down. Northerners were hardly the most patient of men, but this time they could hardly justify staying here when talks went nowhere and their homes were in danger. Offers to fortify the Three Sisters had been rebuffed. Payments to hire several thousand troops had been delayed to the point a single man had yet to pass the Bloody Gate. Unlike King Stannis, who was riding with his army and plenty of reinforcements northwards, it was obvious the Vale troops weren't in a hurry to take the battlefield, and the North hadn't years before facing total defeat against the Others. There had been a golden opportunity: the Mountain Clans were in disarray after the defeat of the Burned Men near the Gates of the Moon, House Lynderly finally surrendered as Lyonel Corbray had completed the first siege engines to breach the walls of the Snakewood fortress. And it was squandered.

It was in a sinister way the evacuation of Gulltown all over again. Following the sack of the city, the victorious army had had the authority and the power to rebuild the sole great city of the Vale to its former glory and eradicate the nepotism and the corruption which had been rooted for the last decades. Instead, only slow efforts were made to erase the damage, with the armies moving towards the Eyrie and other potential threats. The disarmed men, women and children who had fled were forced to sail westwards in fortune rafts towards the Riverlands or the Northern-owned Crownlands. The fleet of Gulltown, much better armed and supplied than their poorer citizens turned to piracy and illegal trade like slavery. Not a very intelligent decision, as the Braavosi fleet was out in strength, and in less than ninety days, most of the aspirants scum -of-the-seas were hanged at the top of the purple sails.

Of course it led to resentment in the Vale against Braavos and the North in turn. The northernmost city of Western Essos had already begun its supply convoys towards White Harbor and Ramsgate. Lord Yohn Royce did what he could to decrease the level of hostility, but it was somewhat disheartening to hear the chronicles of the period relate how the officers debated between demobilising their levies or going down to war...against Braavos. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, but it was proof the issues having plagued the Vale in the past were not over.

In the end, the only thing the assembled parties at the Gates of the Moon managed to agree with was the fate of the mad Lysa Arryn. For her crimes against the laws of God and men, the woman who was most than any others responsible for the current state of the Vale was executed by Lord Yohn Royce in person in a dark valley where it was possible to observe the summit of the mountains in the distance. But the blood on the runic blade had not had time to freeze, screams mounted in the assistance. In the sky, tens of thousands birds were rushing southwards. The sun had disappeared, and now dark clouds announcing an unprecedented avalanche of snow were there. The Long Night had come to the Mountains of the Moon. The Others had emerged again from the legends to torment and kill humanity. And at the present, the Vale was hardly prepared to cope with this threat...


	73. Rallying Call

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Stannis Baratheon or Westeros in general.

raw666: To be fair, some of the problems were created by Jon Arryn himself, and the deaths of both his presumptive heirs in Robert's Rebellion were certainly not good at all for the Vale. But yes, sooner or later the Vale in its entirety pays for Lysa Arryn and Littlefinger's manipulations, and the lords' indecision regarding the war.

Guest: Good point on the Royce, too bad we didn't see a lot of them in the books. Let's hope the book which will be published one day will remedy to that...

X59: Oh, yes, the Vale lords know they need trade partners and neighbours willing to coexist with them. Their main problem is they see their kingdom as an impregnable fortress, while everyone else recognise the foundations of the East are terribly unstable.

As for the foreign views, some lords of the Vale are still seen in a somewhat positive light but the vast majority are watched with dark glares. Conquering the Vale will not be easy, there are powerful fortresses located there which will not surrender at the first arrow fired. But geography makes them extremely vulnerable to aerial invasions.

Paul: Someone caught the reference for the title's inspiration, I see. Don't make a mistake, the Vale has plenty of knights in shining armour (also known as Summer Knights) but they have plenty of battle-hardened veterans too (from Robert's Rebellion and their own civil war). The quality of their commanders and men-at-arms is much better than what the Reach had at the beginning of the hostilities.

Yes, I killed Maryllion. I realised I couldn't let the opportunity to kill that guy. I really didn't like him, and he was useless now that Lysa had lost all power. For the delegation, Robb wouldn't be able to send one of his senior commanders, they're all needed for the war or the garrison duties. Thus the OC. Part of the reason, the Vale don't fortify the Three Sisters is that they can't: two-thirds of the available hulls were at Gulltown and were lost in the process; and their capacity to build a fort of average size on these islands would have been a challenge in money and manpower at the bests of times.

The first wights are pushing to Hornwood as we speak, while their main army is going to assault the Dreadfort. But alas no hint for the Vale. It would spoil too much things for now.

No Ironborn will try to claim Casterly Rock against Asha, but the same is not true of Pyke, which has barely any defence or population as we speak. Note that some of the Aeron pretenders will be simply try to revive the Drowned religion, and not try to usurp the legal claim of Balon's daughter.

Victarion. I agree what you proposed would have been a very karmic end for him, but at the moment I read your post I had already decided his end in this chapter. As a result, no, Victarion won't learn of the demise his elder brother received at the hands of Stannis.

 **Rallying Call**

 **The Last Alliance Part I**

 _"We must hasten. Every day passing precipitates the defeat of the North."_ Lord Perwyn Rosby to King Stannis Baratheon, 301AC.

 _"I prefer to burn the dead now and be accused of heresy; especially when the alternative is being faithful and see legions of wights coming out of their tombs!"_ Lord Edmure Tully, 301AC.

 _"What..."_ Last words of Victarion Greyjoy, 301AC.

 _"I think it's time for the maesters to realise their true power."_ Lord Leighton Hightower, 301AC.

In the multitude of the history books describing and retelling the events of the Second Long Night, the moment King Stannis Baratheon crossed the Blackwater is often chosen by the historians and maesters studying the period as the unofficial beginning of the Last Alliance. The period where smallfolk, highborn lords and all the warriors having survived the War of the Eight Kings chose to one by one put their differences aside and fight together the enemy threatening all life on the Sunset Kingdoms and beyond. The reality was in truth far less rosy, once we get rid of the massive dose of propaganda. Once the Wall had been breached, the appearance of Others and the abominations they controlled south of the Neck was a certainty, not a possibility. In fact, there were several frightening scenarios imagined decades later, explaining that should the Night's Queen have decided not to pursue the dispersed army of the North and the Wall or developed better strategies, the Others could have been breaking through the Gold Road before an effective opposition could be mounted. Sooner or later, King Stannis, the Stormlands and the Reach would have had no choice left but fight the White Walkers united. No matter the insinuations of Ser Loras Tyrell, who had decided to loudly voice his opposition to this new alliance.

Still, the arrival of Stannis army was a great boon for the Kingdom of the North and the Trident. Lord Roose Bolton, who had been left as senior commander of the Northern-occupied Crownlands by King Robb Stark, had been busy juggling with the need to send as many soldiers as possible northwards while at the same time keeping a strong position in the South. With the main force of the Storm kingdom declaring its willingness to fight on the same side, the master of the Dreadfort had only the potential sea threat of the Braavosi to care about and as a result was free to recruit hundreds of soldiers formerly sworn to Houses like Chelsted, Rollingford or Blount. Winter has come, and the Northerners made no qualm to deliver terrifying (and realistic) stories about what was going to happen if they didn't enrol to fight the Others. When the Bolton and Baratheon armies made their junction ten leagues south of Darry, Ser Wendel Manderly and the other commanders had managed to gather close to eight thousand men despite the horrible weather, and only a third were sworn personally to a Northern or Riverlands noble.

These were not the only reinforcements that were in march to protect humanity. At Riverrun, Lord Edmure Tully had ordered a mustering of his own bannersmen after the black news coming at an increasing frequency from the Wall and Beyond-the-Wall, with instructions to meet at the Twins under the command of his uncle Ser Brynden 'the Blackfish'. The forces of Houses Tully, Blackwood and Bracken amongst many others left their homes and marched north to meet the Great Enemy in battle. From the west and the pass of the Golden Tooth came Lord Rickard Karstark with a coalition of Ironborn, Westerners and Northerners. The vast majority of this group were levies, but every little help was going to be necessary. Moreover, with snow falling irregular quantities on the entire width of the Seven Kingdoms save Dorne, it was not like the smallfolk could grow food, harvest crops or do any sort of agricultural work in this weather. As many men as possible had to go to the frontlines. The survival of Westeros depended on it.

But the issues faced by the Riverlords going to war were colossal. It was bad enough to find enough food and adequate clothing supplies in winter time, but a problem rapidly arose that no one had seen coming. When the White Walkers had begun their genocides rampages on the wildling populations, every leader of importance had spread the word to burn the bodies of the fallen. As the Night's Queen and her minions proved to reanimate older corpses, the demands were more and more drastic; by the time the Wall fell King Robb Stark and all his bannersmen had decided to purge by fire all the cemeteries in the North. The task was virtually impossible to accomplish, but every effort would decrease the formidable increase rate of the wights. The Northerners, quite aware the alternative would be to fight the dead, had complied when they had become aware of this terrible fact. But it had been in the North. With the majority of the population following the Old Gods, and the portion which did not was pragmatic in its worship of the Faith of Seven.

The Riverlands, with the exception of House Blackwood, were not following the Old Gods, but the original version of the Faith of Seven, and the septons following this religion insisted there was no risk for any dead to come back to life as long as they were buried in sacred ground. Funnily, lords and knights weren't at all reassured by this, remembering how many thousands men, women and children had been slaughtered by Gregor Clegane, Amory Lorch and the rest of the murderers in Tywin's employ. When the Westerlands army had fled south, Ser Brynden Tully and the troops at his disposition had laid to rest bodies by the hundreds. Everyone knew they had probably missed two or three for every burial. As a consequence, Lord Edmure Tully emissaries and the countryside septons exchanged birds' names, the former considering the priests of the Faith dangerously incompetent in such matters and the latter preparing charges of heresy against the Lord of Riverrun.

Of course, it was hardly the only place where secular authorities clashed with the religious ones. In the Stormlands, the new Hand Ser Richard Horpe was caught between the factions following R'hllor and the supporters of the Faith. While the death of Melisandre of Asshai had somewhat diminished the accelerated conversions to the Red God, it had not stopped them. In this period of cold, sadness and hard living conditions, the message of the Red Priests and Priestesses were attracting. Half a dozen men and women praying R'hllor had come from Myr and Tyrosh to preach their religion, and they were meeting progressively success in the lower classes, a fact made easier by the point King Stannis had effectively departed to fight the Others. Indeed, the Fire Religion was centred on the endless struggle between R'hllor and the Great Other. The Faith of Seven had no books speaking of these beings, with some senior septons officially refusing to recognise their existence. That didn't mean the Faith was condemned, far from it. Many priests of the Seven had amended their speeches to better reflect the times, and the majority of the lower orders acknowledged magic as a fact rather than a pointless series of rumours. The Faith influence on the Stormlords was also still quite strong, and the arrival of Queen Margaery Tyrell gave them a temporary new boost, as the daughter of Mace Tyrell was a pious follower of their religion. The Seven had been venerated and worshipped here for centuries, and like it or not the lords knew septons and septas were a useful conservative base when the time came to resist new edicts and laws. In the shadows, the conflict between the religion of the Andals and its Essossi counterpart had just begun. At Storm's End, the commanders left behind were more preoccupied by the fall of Dragonstone. Obviously, nobody had suggested to use the Narrow Sea as a secure supply line in this season, but seeing the former Targaryen fortress fall so easily had still been a shock and a morale-beater, with the only reaction possible being to send the newly assembled Storm Fleet to retake the island.

The issue was the Stormlands fleet was nowhere ready to face the Braavosi one on the seas. Truly, Admiral Davos Seaworth was uncertain in fact if his seamen would be able to defeat the detachment which had captured Dragonstone. The men who had fought the Battle of the Sea of Dorne had plenty of battle experience and had navigated in extreme conditions all over the Narrow Sea the last two years. Yet there was no point to deny Braavosi ships were faster, more manoeuvrable and had seasoned captains to guide them. Oh, and overwhelming numbers on their side. The arsenal of the Free City was famous to have the capacity to launch a warship per day. A feat which had been impossible to the Westeros of King Robert I, and that had been when King's Landing and several other cities were developed harbours, not complete ruins. Not to mention on 297AC Westeros had had three major fleets. In 301AC, what remained of the Royal Fleet and the Redwyne-Hightower navy were ridiculous in numbers.

Still, this fall demanded a show of strength. Dragonstone was a prestigious castle-fortress, not doing anything would lead to foreign enemies seeing this as weakness. Admiral Seaworth was forced to present a rather improvised plan to fight the pirates of the Stepstones, which had been getting braver these last months. The defections of Pentoshi, Dornish, Tyroshi and Volantene ships had perhaps some part of responsibility in it. Anyway, while the fate of humanity was playing itself in the Battle of the North, the Storm fleet sailed to Bloodstone from its Estermont and Sea of Dorne refuges. Only to arrive in the middle of a carnage. It would not be clear for quite few days, but the last longships of the Iron Fleet had sailed straight to the Stepstones from the Orange Shore, pursued by an enraged Lysene Admiral (rage fully understandable given the numbers of rapes, murders and free destruction the Ironborn did). Cornered in the Grey Gallows, Victarion Greyjoy and his last captains had made a temporary alliance with the local pirates and engaged the Lysene squadron in a mighty clash. The battle was somewhat indecisive, until the arrival of the Westerosi fleet.

There was nothing undecided about the second part of the battle. The men sworn to King Stannis had a visceral hate of the Ironborn since the First Greyjoy Rebellion, and the acts of the Crow's Eye during his brief reign had not exactly improved their disposition. The war galleys of Davos Seaworth formed an attack formation with the _Fury Reborn_ in the middle, and then struck the Iron Fleet in the rear.

With the Lysene blocking any possibilities of fleeing in front of them, the pirates and the Ironborn had no choice but to fight. One or two longships were better placed and would escape to Myr or Tyrosh detailing vividly all their bloody adventures across the seas, but the majority did not. At least half of the captains did not react to the newcomers' arrival, lost in their bloodlust and the fury of the battle. Infamous longships like the _Iron Kiss_ , the _White Widow_ , the _Lamentation_ or the _Leviathan_ were rammed, boarded or crippled with ballista. One by one, the longships sunk. Their pirates' allies fared even worse, being ill-equipped for such a formidable battle and lacking the experience of Braavosi sea dancers. The day was almost over, it was winter and the fog was starting to make visibility difficult, but there was only one longship floating. The _Iron Victory_ , the flagship of Victarion Greyjoy, the Lord Captain of the Iron Islands. A ship which had caused so many casualties and so much carnage it was properly impossible to estimate. Sinking it was the new priority of every Lysene and Westerosi captain. Despite the Ironborn seafaring skills, no less than four Lysene warships and two Stormlanders galleys managed to board the longship. The clash of swords, axes and spears began. The Ironborn were outnumbered close to eight-to-one in the first wave, but they didn't withdraw or surrender. They simply died. For each opponent they parried, there was another to gut them in the back. Those who wore full-plate armours were literally butchered in dozen pieces. At last Victarion Greyjoy was the sole man standing, surrounded by a hundred Lysene. But there was no last charge. The magic the Red Priest Moqorro had used on the Lord Captain's arm finally claimed its price, and Victarion Greyjoy died of a heart stroke on his bloodstained bridge. Unlike the other bodies, his was not fed to the sharks but brought back to Lys and dismembered here before being fed to various exotic creatures owned by the wealthiest inhabitants of this Free City.

Ultimately, the destruction of the Iron Fleet twenty-plus longships would have been inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, if it had not forced its destructors back to their home ports to repair. Unknowingly, the Lysene and Admiral Seaworth had opened the path of return to Daenerys Targaryen and her troops.

To continue in the acts which would cause very major changes in the decades to come, the beginning of 301AC was of course marked by the Grey Beards Purge. After Euron III Greyjoy had unleashed magical horrors on the Reach knights, lords and smallfolk, pretty much all the population of the Reach had begun to wonder where in the Seven Hells the Crow's Eye had found the esoterically knowledge to create these abominations. The investigation was simple, clear and efficient, leading right to the Citadel of Oldtown. Unsurprisingly, the senior maesters and archmaesters alive refused to divulgate the inventory of their now completely empty vaults and decided to stall the demands of Lord Hightower. This proved rather unwise. Deciding he was going to receive more answers in an unconventional way, Lord Leighton paid several students currently studying in the Citadel to bring him the lists the maesters didn't want to come out of their home. The young men, cousins of the highest noble lines of the Reach, obeyed without hesitation and brought back damning evidence. The maesters had unknowingly stored in their basement a treasure of magical lore the Ironborn had used to devastate the Mander.

This was largely enough for all those in power in the greatest city of the Reach. The City's Watch was mobilised, and columns of pikemen raced in the Citadel, arresting the Order senior members right and left. For the younger ones, it was more complicated. Under the supervision of one student who revealed to be Sarella Sand, one of the many illegitimate daughters of Prince Oberyn Martell, two dozen young men had profited from the archmaesters political problems to raid the libraries and depart Oldtown with their stolen information. Few influent men realised at that time it was more than a banal theft and one of the many plots of Archmaester Marwyn. Even less people understood all the implications unleashed by the downfall of the Maester Order.

Besides there were far more important things happening in the Northern Riverlands. King Stannis, Lord Roose Bolton, Ser Wendel Manderly, Lord Rickard Karstark, Lord Stevron Frey, Lord Jason Mallister and Ser Brynden Tully had finally united their forces at the entrance of the Neck. Dornish, Reachers, Riverlords, Stormlanders, Westerners, Ironborn, Northerners, Crownlords and a few hundred Vale volunteers having departed from the Bloody Gate; every part of Westeros was represented. Close to forty thousand men had been gathered in a single place to defeat the terrifying forces of Death and Winter. It was the Last Alliance. But unknown to them, their grand battle would not be fought in the North...


	74. Winter fell there

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the North, Bear Island or Winterfell.

raw666: Fear not, I am not going to kill everyone in this story. Otherwise how could an historian could recount the tales of this dramatic period?

X59: Indeed, these are the first changes in the Faith doctrine and methods. Put under pressure by the other religions (save the Drowned God whose adherents are mostly extinct) they are going to evolve, their power and influence in the Seven Kingdoms are at stake.

The senior Maesters were just arrested, because like it or not, they had a great deal of their own men in power at Oldtown, and the Hightowers needed time to discredit their power base. As for why they didn't want the whole world to know, a great deal of what Euron stole in the vaults wasn't theirs in the first place but was 'borrowed' in forgotten places of different castles and forts. It's going to be extremely politically damaging, and quite a few nobles are going to scream murder when they become aware of it...

Paul: Well happy birthday! (one week late but still...) The archmaesters and the maesters have still their part to play in the story. Victarion's fate was voluntarily anti-climatic. I didn't feel given him the death in personal combat the Ironborn craved.

No, Ralf the Limper and the other senior captains didn't survive the battle. The few Ironborn sailors did have been enslaved by the Lysene anyway, so it's not like being alive would have been preferable.

And no, Loras is going to cause more problems. Too skilled with the sword to die easily but too idiot to realise internal squabbles is the last humanity needs. Unlike the Drowned religion, which has been reduced to almost nothing.

melubarv: Yes, religion has a way to complicate everything, though the beginning of canon ASOIAF shows the worship of several gods from a very tame angle. It's only with Melisandre and the High Sparrow we see a return to human sacrifice and radicalism.

Jon Snow is currently at Ramsgate, trying to coordinate the evacuation of the North and slow down the progression of the Others. It is not a glorious task, nor a very successful task, it must be said.

Darthas:  Westeros reaching pre-war levels in less than a century? Yes. A century is a long time and no one will want bloodshed for a long time after the Others are deal with.

Errr...how should I tell this...from an outside perspective, Daenerys acts are as erratic and cruel as I described them. The author isn't in her head. In the books, we know she has good intentions because we are in her head. But from an outsider's perspective, burning and sacking Slaver's Bay is a malicious and needless act, especially if she always wanted to go to Westeros anyway. Her crusade against slavery might be morally good, but Daenerys isn't a good leader. The Mothers of Dragons is far from the worst in Planetos, but there's no point to pretend that if she hadn't had dragons, she would be utterly screwed.

There is another threat in the East, and it's going to make its appearance soon. The Long Night may or may not reach Vaes Dothrak. The House of Black and White...that would spoil too many things.

skipper1337: Glad you caught the Lord of the Rings references. Hope you continue to enjoy this story! Tyrion as a Boromir of Westeros equivalent? In character perhaps, in height maybe not so much...

 **Winter fell there**

 **The Battle of the North Part II**

 _"Let the wights and the Others come. Whether they are thousands or tens of thousands, they will never take this castle. Winter fell there in the old times, and it will fall there again."_ Attributed to Princess Arya Stark, 301AC.

 _"Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North, whose his name is STARK."_ Lyanna Mormont, 301AC.

 _"Abandon the outer wall! Abandon the outer wall!"_ Dacey Mormont, 301AC.

 _"Now the expression 'mountain of corpses' takes all its sense."_ Patrek Mallister, 301AC.

The Others had suffered reverses in the first days marking the start of the battle of the North. In many locations, the numbers of wights had been reduced significantly, courtesy of fire, magic and old-fashioned human fury. If it had been human enemies who attacked the North, there would have been a good chance the forces of King Robb Stark could have regrouped and finished the enemy here and there.

Alas, the Others had revealed some traits and weaknesses in the battles they had been involved by that point, but compassion for their losses was not one of them. Where a human army would have reeled with large holes in the ranks and the command structure, the White Walkers just kept coming, bringing wights reinforcements on the frontlines by the thousands. One or defeat or two weren't going to stop the Others from launching their massive armies against the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. It was going to take more than this to end the threat of the Winter forces.

The most striking example of this was Bear Island. Soon after the fall of the Wall, the Others had sent a rapid strike force towards the seat of House Mormont. It had been a disaster for the Others, their entire expeditionary force being wiped out without much trouble as their wight force was ridiculously weak. But the White Walkers were far from discouraged by this western disaster. Six days after the last wight was put down by a Mormont warrior, the second assault of the Others took place, starting the Second Battle of Bear Island. And this time, the humans did not enjoy a walk-over. The ice beings had frozen the sea on two completely separate places to divide the attention of the defenders, and there were seven times more wights, including some large dead animals like direwolves, bears and shadowcats. In the rear, about a hundred Others came, all mounted on ice spiders. The Mormont and the various Northern troops did not manage to hold the invaders on the shores this time. Truly, they had not the manpower to do so. Lady Maege Mormont ordered the retreat in the dark woods surrounding Mormont Keep. The Others and their mass of wights chose to pursue. It was their biggest and last mistake.

There was a reason why rumours in the North told the Mormont women slept with bears, and it was not to flatter them or to make word games with honey or fur. The people living on Mormont lands were all strengthened by centuries of constant warfare against the wildlings, the Ironborn, the elements, the local predators and any other threat showing its fangs from the Frozen Shore to Sea Dragon Point. In the deep woods the Northerners had learnt survival since their childhood, the wights were nuisances at best, targets unable to retaliate at worst. The Others had no maps, no indication how to manoeuvre in this type of terrain and their management of small units in ambushes and skirmishes proved itself deficient, and that was if one wanted to be generous. By the time the force having come out of the Lands of Always Winter was in front of Mormont Keep, two-thirds of the wights had been permanently put back to a death status and one-third of the White Walkers had been transformed into ice shards.

With the Others responsible for partially freezing the Bay of Ice unable to maintain a constant stream of reinforcements, the ice soldiers present on the island had understood an immediate assault was the only way to take the castle of House Mormont, before the irregular fighting in the back destroyed the undead troops lucky or swift enough to not lie slaughtered in the forest. Clearly, the Other commander had overestimated his available strength. The human fighters were led by men and women having survived the catastrophic Battle of the Wall, so the shock value which had proved advantageous for the Others was minimal on Bear Island. Furthermore, Commander Blane and the last members of the Night's Watch had spared no expense or effort to grab as many dragonglass daggers and arrow points as possible. The assault on Mormont Keep lasted less than an hour, the time for the archers to butcher singlehandedly the Others moving in their range. Once done, the wights were leaderless, dozens of the older ones simply disintegrated or fell apart, and the rest were no match for the Mormont warriors. The Second Battle of Bear Island ended in a clear and decisive human victory.

Yet the White Walkers did not accept their defeat. Bear Island was the stronghold defending the entire western coast of the North; should it fail, Deepwood Motte and all the Houses inhabiting near like Forrester, Woods, Bole and Branch would be in danger of being overrun. With the Other detachments in the mountains being continuously torn apart by Lord Daryn Hornwood and the mountain clans, the White Walkers had no option but try again to erase all resistance on the island, no matter the cost it was going to take. Thus the wheels were in motion for the Third Battle of Bear Island...but this is a history for another day.

In the mean time, the cyvasse board was in place for an even more critical battle. Tens of thousands wights had descended the Kingsroad with a formidable Other contingent to attack Winterfell, the capital of the North and birthplace of the Starks, hereditary enemies of the White Walkers. The Northern garrison commanded by Dacey Mormont had been considerably reinforced in the last fortnights by men living in the Wolfswood and west of the White Knife, but the struggle promised to be merciless. Thanks the wolves and the expert hunters providing reconnaissance troops and probing the edge of the dead formations, the Winterfell men and women knew what was coming for them, and the numerical inferiority was daunting. The arrival of the surviving cavalry under Queen Val and Patrek Mallister didn't change the odds. Only the arrival of Podrick Payne, former squire of Tyrion Lannister, brought a bit of hope. With the supplies of dragonglass carried by the last of the Black Lions and the reserves discovered in forgotten cellars or mined by the clansmen in far away locations, the Free Folk and Northmen inside the citadel built by Brandon the Builder had for the moment enough ammunition to make the ice abominations regret a frontal assault.

Of course, the short wait before the vanguard of the White Walkers came revealed plenty of issues to deal with for Dacey Mormont and her defenders. If Maester Luwin, member of the Oldtown Order had recognised his former stance on magic and ice threats had been wrong all along and embraced the new strategic picture, Lady Catelyn Stark born Tully had deep reservations brought by the return of her family in the castle. By the end of the War of the Eight Kings, everybody who had a functional brain knew the Stark children had skinchanger powers. Rickon Stark was said to be totally linked to his direwolf Shaggydog, and his older sister Arya had established with her Nymeria total control over a pack of wolves and direwolves. The effectives of said pack were growing night by night as the White Walkers pushed the entire animal population of the North southwards. Therefore it was not that much a surprise when the elder sister Princess Sansa bonded with a shadowcat (rumours the big feline was the one which had pounced Ser Boros Blount were never confirmed). More disturbing in the eyes of the Stark lady was the fact her eldest son had wedded a wildling woman during his campaign at the Wall and apparently gotten her pregnant. Val was a beautiful woman, yes, but hardly any noble south of the Neck would have considered her a good daughter-in-law, especially as she brought little wealth or political influence to House Stark. That Princess Arya considered the new wife of his brother a model for Northern women to follow didn't help. In the end, it took the first skirmishes with the enemy to ease the tensions. Three days after the arrival of the newly knighted Podrick Payne, the Others arrived at Winterfell. The gates were closed and sealed. The large pack of wolves and direwolves dispersed to harry the flanks of the wights formations. The battle was about to begin.

For the first time in recorded history, a lone White Walker approached the defences of the Stark citadel and invited in a voice as cold as the blizzard the humans to surrender. It was the first time for certain the Northerners heard an Other speak a human language, and it erased completely the doubts of all Winterfell population the White Walkers had problems to communicate with Westerosi or other known human civilisations. The ice monsters had simply not wanted to, preferring pure annihilation to diplomacy. A lone dragonglass arrow in the Other's throat terminated this short moment of negotiation. The attack of the Great Enemy began mere minutes after. In one moment, the dark and cold weather became a true snow storm, thousands of wights surged towards the walls, followed by dead birds, dead animals and dead giants. A legion of darkness launched with only one goal: eradicating every living being inside Winterfell.

But Winterfell was no mere fort or improvised defensive position. It had been built by the legendary architect known as Brandon the Builder, the first King of the North. Built over natural hot springs, the citadel was warmed at temperatures unusual for a Northern summer. A weirwood was in the Godswood alimented in blood by willing donors, last beacon of light in the darkness destined to repulse the sorcery of the White Walkers. On the outer wall, runes long forgotten shone with renewed vigour, their purpose finally bringing them back to use after centuries of wait. And these were only the magical defences. The outer wall of Winterfell was eighty feet tall, the inner one was one hundred feet tall, and there was a large and wide moat between them. Winterfell had been a fortress conceived and planned to resist the might of the Others. Now the antic citadel proved it.

Endless waves of wights mounted to the assault of the outer wall, bombarded by incendiary projectiles, large stones, oil and fuming branches of weirwood and water having been mixed with some shards of dragonglass. The result was so devastating the first dead waves did not broke. They were purely and simply wiped out from the earth.

In spite of their inhuman mentality, many men and women sworn to the Stark thought the Others were going to break or withdraw this time. Hundreds of wights were dying per minute for no gain, the terrain before the walls was full of burning corpses, it was a holocaust of savagery which served no purpose. The Others did not share this view. Their hate for the humans was strong enough to ignore these small details, and new waves of darkness poured from the Wolfswood and the Kingsroad. The archers and the soldiers present on the ramparts killed uncountable enemies, but pushed by their dreaded masters the dead bodies raced to the walls in speeds which expressed their fury, madness and folly. The hours passed and the humans tired, but in a spectacle of horror and madness, more and more wights threw themselves against the outer wall of Winterfell.

Birds, bears, wolves, mammoths, rabbits, stags and representatives of all Northern existing species attacked without doubt or fear. The pile of bodies was now so high it reached three-quarters of the outer wall at the top. And fatally, wights began to pass the rampart and the turrets as crude ladders and improvised climbing helps were brought against the fortification. The siege engines and the archers could not stop it. The fires decreased in power under the ice winds sent by the Others. Slowly but surely, wights started to set foot on the outer wall and murder the Northmen and the Free Folk. During a few minutes, losses mounted until it became unsustainable for the living. Dacey Mormont and Ser Rodrik Cassel were forced to order the retreat to the inner wall.

It was not a moment too soon. The last humans had not been rescued and crossed the moat between the walls that the White Walkers leadership decided their patience had run out. In a scream which sounded like a thousand men were screaming in agony, about four-fifths of the entire Others army launched the final assault. All the wights which had been left in the back, with some snow lions, shadowcats and wights of direwolves. Close to a thousand dead birds. Between twelve to fourteen thousands bodies. In the skies two dozen ice wyverns fell from the clouds, awful predators giving a distorted and smaller view of the dragons. On the ground, two thousand White Walkers, hundreds ice spiders and other ice abominations which should never have walked on this earth ran to kill the inhabitants of Winterfell.

They were warmly intercepted. With the White Walkers having left their wights spearheading the battle, Dacey Mormont had seen no reason to diminish the dragonglass supply in these long, hard hours. Flammable substances had been poured to stalemate the attempts on the outer wall. But now, with the Others having decided to join the battlefield, there was no reason to save the special ammunition. In one signal, two hundred obsidian arrows targeted all the ice wyverns and the flying wights, letting them abandon the northern skies in their demise. And when the White Walkers passed the outer wall and the moat to assault the inner wall, they marched in a killing ground they had never seen the proportions before. Every ice warrior received dragonglass in one way or another, the wights burnt, and for the first time in the Second Long Night, the defenders of Winterfell saw the impossible happen.

One lone Other, partially burned from a loud explosion of fire and obsidian, threw his massive sword down and broke rank to flee the inferno where so many members of his species had met their hands. It was the beginning of the rout. One by one, the surviving White Walkers died or realised they could not win this battle. Dozens of Others fled the battlefield between the two great walls of the citadel. A vigorous counter-attack made by Patrek Mallister and seconded by the reserves of Princess Arya Stark dislodged the last wights off the outer wall, and for a moment there was nothing but silence in the air. It was instantly broken by the celebrations of victory. The Others had tried to take the capital of the North and failed in an abyssal manner. It was the proof humans, no matter their birthplace, could stand against the Great Enemy and win until Dawn came again to end the Night.

That did not mean the siege of the Stark ancestral home was over. The Others may have just gutted their elite forces in this horrible battle, but there were still enough of them to make a sally outside a very bad idea. The garrison of Winterfell would have to endure the encirclement of the Others, although the pack of direwolves outside never ceased to torment the Others and limit their attempt to bring more dead back to life. The Battle of Winterfell had ended but the Siege of Winterfell continued unabated. Knowing the outcome of the Second Long Night, it was far from the worse outcome. After all, who knows what sort of things could have happened if the cataclysm stopped by Winterfell walls had continued to progress against the Southern kingdoms of Westeros...


	75. Rebellion against God

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Empire of Yi Ti and its God-Emperors.

raw666: Thanks for the support!

X59: Yes, glory to Winterfell! The third assault on Bear Island will undoubtedly be better prepared than the two first ones, but it will be enough? The Others have to understand sometimes throwing endless resources at a problem doesn't work, and the same is true in a certain measure for Winterfell.

The army of Stannis is crossing the Neck at the moment. The armies of the South are soon going to be engaged against the Enemy.

Paul: Oh the Others are the final villains of this story. But are the ice abominations the only representatives of their specie?

In this story, I made them able to talk human language, yes. The problem is that often they aren't very interested to communicate with the Northerners or other humans, and when they do, the amounts of carnage they cause make their opponents a bit wary about trusting them. Moral speaking, Others are individuals and it means a little sense of self-preservation. When you see your fellows being slaughtered against a fortification you can't take without insane casualties, Others are not different from human. They just take a bit more time before routing.

Thanks for the comments and the Long Night is far from over. The Night's Queen was not present at these battles.

skipper1337: Pleased you approved the choice of a shadowcat for Sansa.

Robb never made the expensive deal of canon with the Freys and did not bed Jeyne Westerling, there was nothing to stop him from bedding and marrying Val.

Yes, I'm afraid Bronn is dead. But the Night's Queen had to come to end him so I suppose he got an awesome end and he will remembered as one of the deadliest fighters of the war. Not too bad?

Catelyn Stark...on some topics she has changed from canon. In others, not so much. Remember she is a product of the Riverlands society, and her initial adaptation to the North was slow. With the Others and the Free Folk in the picture...

As for Tolkien's dragons, there are infernos of mass destruction able to disintegrate armies three times the size of the Westerosi ones. A minority of the beasts are as close to invincible as you can get. Not sure you want to see a clash of these monsters, there wouldn't be a lot of persons alive in the vicinity after that. The wyverns are cousins of the dragons, having evolved in a different direction thousands of years ago.

For the rest of your questions, you will have to wait and see...

mr I hate znt nobles kill em:  Yes, a fusion of the Free Folk with the Northerner population is going to occur. The homes of the men and women living Beyond-the-Wall are lost for the short-term, and even if they weren't, I doubt many would be enthusiastic at the idea of returning in a land crawling with wights and their Others masters.

The North may merge as a little more barbaric, but for that matter so is the South: some of the actions taken by Stannis and the other kings were in all honesty not that chivalrous...

And now a new chapter in a far away country...

 **Rebellion against God**

 **Tales of the Long Night Part I**

 _"If the God-Emperor does not come to us, then we will go to the God-Emperor's palace of Yin!"_ Pol Qo, first orange God-Emperor, 297AC.

 _"Always kill your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much."_ Chai Cao, sixty-ninth yellow God-Emperor, 297AC.

 _"I have nothing to declare except my greatness."_ Chai Cao, sixty-ninth yellow God-Emperor, 298AC.

 _"I am God, miserable insects! Submit or face my wrath!"_ Chai Cao, sixty-ninth yellow God-Emperor to the emissaries of Jinqi, 298AC.

 _"The only war which makes the War of the Eight Kings and the Essossi Apocalypse minor events in comparison."_ Queen Cassana Baratheon speaking about the War of the Fall, 330AC.

Three hundred and one years after Aegon the First conquered Westeros, war raged everywhere. On Westeros, with the War of the Eight Kings followed by the invasion of the Others, masters of ice and darkness. In Western Essos, with the Mother of Dragons Queen Daenerys Targaryen sacking cities and destroying the established order in her attempts to destroy slavery forever. But also in far away locations few would have bothered to think about.

On the Basilisk Isles, the corsairs and pirates ruling the place were forced to band together to resist the attacks of monkey humanoid warriors coming out of the Sothoryos wilderness. Qarth, one of the most prestigious Essossi cities, main harbour in the vicinity of the Jade Gates, was assaulted by columns of Dothraki. Qarth resisted and exterminated the barbarians, but the losses in lives were considerable. In Asshai-by-the-Shadows, a necromancer naming himself Luruk the Dark tried to overthrow the current order and in doing so provoked a civil war. The Dothraki Sea was the scene of three massive campaigns involving more than eighteen khalasars vying for supremacy and causing hundreds of thousands deaths. And the sad part of this was all these conflicts were only mere skirmishes compared to what happened far in the east.

Yi Ti. The Golden Empire. The successor state of the Great Empire of the Dawn. Located east of the Bone Mountains and bordered by the Jade Sea, this seemingly limitless empire was vaguely finding its frontiers at the Great Sand Sea, the Shrinking Sea, the Bleeding Sea and the Mountains of the Morn. Known in Westeros as a land of thousands gods and a hundred princes ruled by one Emperor-God, Yi Ti exported wine and saffron along other spices and various exotic goods. Under its sixth sea-green Emperor, the Yi Ti had dominated not only their ancestral lands, but also the islands of Leng, Great Moraq and Lesser Moraq. Ghis, Qarth and Asshai paid tribute to the God-Emperor at that period. With eleven documented dynasties at its head since its foundation, the nation was hailed as model of continuity, with the only eternal challenge being the threat of the Jhogos Nhai, the nomadic people always managing to come back and vanquish the invading Yi Ti armies. But the times of prosperity were now at an end.

Eight millennia after the First Long Night, the Second one was coming. Already dark things woke up in the deepest parts of the jungles, whispers of fears many had hoped they would never be seen at day's light again. The Mountains of the Morn shook under minor earthquakes, and lost animals, sheep, zorses and goats were found torn apart or emptied of their blood. The Bleeding Sea was reported taking a blue colour no less than five times. The Shrinking Sea, almost reduced to a pitiful lake, was enlarged by several massive rains which saw its diminished size being multiplied twenty times. The warning signs were there. And the inhabitants of Yi Ti, by all measure one of the most ancient, influential and respected empire of the world...ignored them.

Of course, the Yi-Tish civilisation had a long history of ignoring things they should have really taken care of centuries before. The prime example of this was the God-Emperor, the descendant of the Lion of the Night himself. Once upon a time, the power of this supreme ruler had been absolute everywhere the might of Yi Ti vast armies marched. In 298AC, this authority had faded so much the Azure Emperor Bu Gai would have been very lucky to be acknowledged as a ruler outside the walls of his capital. As far as every prince, wizard, general, priest, brigand or warlord was concerned, the imperial power began and ended at Yin. End of the story.

The result was complete anarchy. At the best of times, leaving one hundred princes more ambitious than King Euron III Greyjoy and possessing common sense similar to King Aegon IV the Unworthy would have resulted in disaster. At worst, it led to wars which made the death numbers from the War of the Eight Kings like child squabbles. From 270AC to 278AC as a matter of things, such a war had indeed happened and ravaged every province and major town between Tiqui and Jinqui. A minimum of half a million soldiers had died. Civilians losses were likely ten times greater. In 296AC, there was a minimum of six minor conflicts going on at Yi Ti. It was officially considered 'peace'.

The conquests of the empire had not resisted this period of gradual weakening. Four hundred years ago, Leng had reconquerred its independence by the force of arms. Qarth and Asshai had long since ceased to pay tribute. All settlements founded or administered on islands and other continents had rebelled or been defeated by foreign forces. The Yi Ti were seeing the sun set on their vast empire...and nobody in the native population really cared, busy with their own internal problems.

Despite this loss of status, the turn taken by the events on the first months of 297AC surprised the most pessimistic observers present at Yin. It was then that a sorcerer rose in the eastern town of Carcosa, pretending he was the sixty-ninth yellow God-Emperor of Yi Ti. A claim, needless to say, which made thousands of princes, merchants, common folk and soldiers laugh. The yellow dynasty had been extinct, buried and forgotten for a thousand years, this pretender had better chance to be a Dothraki in disguise than a person having imperial blood flowing in his veins. Unfortunately, Chai Cao, as the magical practitioner answered, had anticipated these objections. Once the inhabitants and leaders of Carcosa chose to deny him the generosity of recognising him as their God and Emperor, the sorcerer used his formidable powers to slaughter the protestants, assisted by a band of fanatics history was going to know as the Crimson Fists. The battle lasted three days. Once it was over, Chai Cao was in full control of Carcosa and about twenty thousand men, women and children had perished. For the first time in centuries, a challenge had been made to Yin.

Immediately, the princes of Yi Ti recognised the danger they faced. Chai Cao had absolutely no reason to be their friend or a temporary ally; on the contrary the magician proclaimed God-Emperor best interest was to get rid of the corrupt nobility permanently. In less than fifty days, sixteen princes put their differences aside and formed a league to march on the man having the temerity to violate centuries of tradition. The princes were joined by hundreds of warlords, generals, warlocks, sorcerers and mercenaries, forming a large army which for the first time received the official benediction of the Azure God-Emperor before rushing eastwards to massacre this rebellion in the cradle. One hundred and forty thousand men. Over two hundred magic-users, whose power was exponentially rising day by day. The yellow pretender was going to be swept aside by the numbers alone.

Alas, the strategists in this army had neglected a little detail. They had thought everyone believed it was a sacrilege and a heresy to declare himself the equal of the God-Emperor. Something which after centuries of decrepitude and hard conflicts was no longer true. On the seventh month of 297AC, General Pol Qo, the self-styled Hammer of the Jogos Nhai, proclaimed himself God-Emperor at Trade Town on the northernmost frontier.

In other times, the princes and those exercising a minimum of influence and power at Yin and on the coast of the Jade Sea would have answered by a " Yes and?" An opinion understandable. Pol Qo was extremely low in the hierarchy of the nobility, and had been virtually coinless when he entered the army. His exploits against the Jogos Nhai had made him a popular figure and gave him a respectable wealth (by the nobility of Yi Ti standards) but when political power entered the game, Pol Qo was not registered as a player.

And it would have been the end of it, if the proclamation of Pol Qo had not been done in front of two hundred thousand troops, each of them to the last swearing to serve Pol Qo as Orange God-Emperor and help him conquer the Yi Ti throne. The totality of the northernmost garrisons and armies had just gone over to the rebel general. And at twenty days of interval, a succession of minor nobles, ambitious officers, bandits, priests and soldiers emerged into the light thorough the entire length of Yi Ti to follow this move. Pol Qo had no intention for his claim to be treated as a political opening. He was going to come and get the supreme power by fire and blood. The War of the Fall had officially begun.

Unlike the War of the Eight Kings, the conflict did not erupt in great battles for several months. Pol Qo and his rebel army were far from the main cities and population centres of Yi Ti, and the same was true in a certain measure for Chai Cao. With the initial military answer to the tyrant of Carcosa being dispersed to deal with the hundreds of insurrections burning the plains and the forests of the eastern empire, the commanders prepared themselves for a long and arduous campaign. By the beginning of 298AC, the war had been unleashed everywhere and Pol Qo had finally put his strategy into effect. On the third day of 298AC, the armies of the Orange pretender attacked the major town of Tiqui, and defeated it into an orgy of violence lasting four days and four nights. At approximately the same moment, Chai Cao and hundreds of traitors having rallied to his banners began their own offensive towards the delta city-fortress of Jinqi.

The Empire of Yi Ti burnt. The chronicles and the reliable witnesses having assisted to this cataclysm made it perfectly clear. Like awful paintings and nightmarish tapestries, family members fought together other siblings before betraying and massacring each other. Vanquished soldiers were fed to basilisks and the large feline predators inhabiting Yi Ti jungles. Armies betrayed their former employers on a massive scale for the opportunity of plunder and rape. Princes were assassinated, their proud and millenary lines wiped out. Smallfolk were butchered, their villages and their harvests put to the flame to ensure they would not profit to the other side. Slaves were ritualistically murdered to countless dark divinities. Wizards, witches and sorcerers of the worst sort unleashed fell powers thought long-disappeared on the battlefield and defenceless men, women and children. Pol Qo, his army swelling with tens of thousands more recruits was now entering the jungles of the core imperial army after having defeated every loyalist general sent his way, including the battle of the Yu Pass where eleven thousand men sworn to the Azure Emperor were slaughtered. The heresy represented by the rebel general was seemingly unstoppable.

But it was Chai Cao who made the war entered a new magnitude in level of atrocities and war crimes. The city of Jinqi having refused to surrender to the Yellow pretender, the magician leading the eastern rebellion ordered no mercy of any sort to be given. Acid rains fell upon the defenders. Perversion of animals like spiders, snakes and other venomous animals swarmed the sewers to attack the Yi-Tish from underground. The Azure garrison was tormented endlessly by sinister screams of agony. Clouds of poisons and diseases were in the air, destroying the water and food supplies, bringing the men to kill their families before taking their own lives. When the final assault was given, Jinqi was just a gigantic slaughterhouse making the fate of King's Landing a peaceful outcome by comparison. Out of a city of eight hundred thousand permanent inhabitants, three-quarters had already left this world and those who had not suffered the worst depredations, being killed raped, tortured or sold into slavery when Jinqi fell. The prince of Jinqi, his entire family, all his cousins, second lines and third lines, had been extinguished. All the nobles found were executed. Most of the remaining population was butchered too. Jinqi was now only a destroyed husk, a horrifying warning to those resisting the yellow pretender.

Yet at the time the Yi Ti were consumed in civil war, another threat manifested itself. From the Grey Waste, endless armies of ash and fire bearing the appearance of the ancient demons resurfaced in front of the Five Forts garrisons built at the hour of triumph during the First Long Night. K'Dath and Bonetown had disappeared in the night, unable to stem the tide, and now the Shrykes themselves were fleeing to subsist another day. Large cloud of ashes covered the sun, and the temperatures became suffocating and nauseating everywhere in the vicinity of the Forts and the Bleeding Sea. After eight thousand years, the humans of Eastern Essos were going to have to fight for the Dawn again. Their Great Enemy had returned.


	76. Enemies in the Shadows

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Pentos, Qohor or Daenerys Targaryen.

General review: Many comments on the last week have expressed surprise at the idea of another enemy being unveiled and how my imagination is running wild. But I can ensure you the Yi Ti chapter is largely based on canon and the World of Ice and Fire written by GRRM. Obviously, this species of "Others" threatening the East could not be the ice beings attacking Westeros. Which decided me to present them as the "fire threat". The core of the story will stay focused on Westeros and Western Essos, have no fear. But from time to time, there will be some chapters to sum up the events of Asshai, Yi Ti and the Second Long Night in other lands.

raw666: No, no just fire and ice. I want the world to have at least one human to survive...

X59: These new opponents are undoubtedly the very enemies of the Others. They are born in ashes and fire, the White Walkers are the symbol of ice, snow and frost. Unfortunately, their areas of influence are a world away from each other.

We will see only minor notes and rumours about Sothoryos. For the short and middle-term after the war, this continent will remain unexplored and inhabited on the coasts only y exiled, pirates and criminals. Kingdoms and empires will be content to ignore the preoccupations of the locals.

Paul: Jinqi's fate was tragic, I completely agree. The sad part is that after this war crime, some princes are still convinced they can treat with the dement responsible of this carnage...

As for Pol Qo, yes I really intended for him to come out as a horrible being. No matter his military reputation, creating a civil war at a time the empire was in deep need of stability to resist assaults everywhere reveals selfishness and arrogance in abundance. Not exactly a good combination for a potential emperor.

The Freys are going to make their come-back in the next two chapters after this one. In good and in bad...

skipper1337: The war in Westeros is not exactly a side show of the Far East, though the numbers involved may give that idea. If the Others defeat the Seven Kingdoms, an ocean of ice will soon extinguish humanity in Westeros and Western Essos. And guess where they will turn their eyes after? Glad you caught a bit of the Warhammer 40000 references I put on. With the scarcity of the material, I needed a bit of epic and Warhammer has a large content to draw from...

Darthas: Thanks! And yes, the Long Night is going to be a global event remembered for decades worldwide, not a cheap war forgotten immediately as the Others are vanquished.

 **Enemies in the Shadows**

 **The Essossi Apocalypse Part IV**

 _"To those answering how many Dothraki there are in this world, I answer: too many. But less than yesterday."_ Anonymous Qohorik after the Great Battle of Qohor, 301AC.

 _"To Dragonstone. We are going back home."_ Queen Daenerys Targaryen to Ser Barristan Selmy, 301AC.

 _"The armies of the North have failed to stop the Others. We need dragons. Who will govern what can wait next year. If there is a next year."_ Sealord Fregar, 301AC.

Volantis had fallen. After Astapor, Yunkai, Meereen, Mantarys, Tolos and Elyria, the vast city known as the Eldest Daughter of Valyria had been unable to resist the armies of Queen Daenerys Targaryen. Thousands of Dothraki had been slaughtered in front of the damaged and burnt walls of the city commanding the Rhoynar delta. Tens of thousands slaves had shed their blood and been massacred. The fires of revolution and insurrection were now burning Essos from east to west at a stunning speed. And it was just the beginning.

To reach her final objective, namely the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, the Mother of Dragons had still to pass east of one of the most contested territories of the known world. The Disputed Lands. The place where hundreds of sellswords companies fought, bled and died for the power struggles of the Free Cities of Lys, Tyrosh and Myr. A theatre Volantis had tried to conquer and hold in the Century of Blood, only to be brought down by a coalition of the remaining Free Cities. All interferences in this endless cycle of manipulations, battles and treasons were badly received. And if thousands of Dothraki, liberated slaves and newly trained freedmen were not counting as an interference, then nothing would. There was no fog of war like in the Stepstones to avoid interception. A improvised alliance of two magisters of Lys, six minor nobles of Tyrosh and three Myrish magisters was formed, with the covert goal of striking down the Targaryen forces before the Mother of Dragons decided to add their cities to the list of her victims. It was a secret alliance of course, because no one fancied having three dragons executing the same kind of attack which had razed Yunkai in an apocalyptic inferno. Seven sellsword companies, eight thousand men all told, were hired and gathered ten leagues north of Lake Opal, where the official frontier with the Volantene was generally recognised.

Banking on the night and the darkness to neutralise the aerial scouting capabilities of the fire-breathing lizards, the sellsword companies attacked the Targaryen camp at night. Unfortunately, their reconnaissance efforts had been not very accurate, and the first riders reaching the army realised soon they were not amongst the civilians, but well into a section separating newly trained Unsullied and the Dothraki. And thanks to the night-time confusion, the fight had already begun when the men of the Disputed Lands became aware of it. It was not good news. The Myrish, Tyroshi and Lysene were outnumbered two or three to one at the beginning of the fight. A quarter of an hour later, the drawbacks grew more insurmountable. At the lights of the torches, Queen Daenerys Targaryen had decided to intervene. Drogon flew silently over the mercenary main body, before unleashing fires that should not be out of place in the deepest pits of Hell. The officers perished in an instant, vaporised with a third of their troops. The rest of the companies broke ranks and escaped in the obscurity to carry the news back to their patrons. Needless to say, it was the first and last attempt to bring the dragons to battle. The Dragon Fleet sailed unopposed by Myr and Tyrosh all its way to Pentos, and no independent sellsword captain was suicidal to fight an army now recruiting by the thousands escaped slaves from Myrish and Pentoshi farms and plantations. Queen Daenerys Targaryen preceded them with her three dragons.

Surprisingly, the negotiations with the Braavosi emissaries present in Pentos and the last young heiress of the dragonlords went without much trouble. One might argue the Braavosi had the upper hand from the start information and military-wise: the Targaryen fleet having sailed from Volantis was in dire need of repairs, the long column of freedmen and Unsullied were less than five day from collapsing and their logistical chain was simply a nightmare. By comparison, the Braavosi naval squadrons were powerful, and the land forces had the huge walls of Pentos for protection with massive arbalests and machineries conceived to parry a draconic offensive. Sealord Fregar agreed by the voice of his diplomats to give back Dragonstone, but the trade taxes of the Gullet and the exploitation rights of obsidian stayed with the sea city. The subject of who was to reign Westeros was put back to later and hopefully happier times. With the Others having passed the Wall and raising the dead in the North, the possibility of demanding a Great Council or settling the quarrels on the battlefield would have to wait the defeat of the abominations. As the men of words discussed the last details, the Braavosi navy imitated the role of a long bridge, starting the process of transporting thousands of infantry and cavalry from the southern Flatlands to the Seven Kingdoms.

War had been avoided at Pentos. But no god or demon could have avoided the slaughter preparing itself at Qohor. Already, a hundred or so Red Priests had tried to burn the representation of the Black Goat, titular deity of the former Valyrian colony, in the name of R'hllor. The religious quarrel was settled with the greatest severity by the rulers of the Qohorik. All the insurrection participants were sacrificed on the dark altar. The succession of dark omens remarked by the priests of the Black Goat of Qohor convinced nearly every class of the city a time of great danger had arrived. As a result, all the families of those having rebelled were sacrificed too. And for good measure, every known cultist of R'hllor was cut into multiple pieces for the greatest glory of the Black Goat. By the end of the fortnight, the daily bloodshed had created lakes of the red liquid in the main temples of Qohor. But the Priests of the Black Goat had no remorse. This massacre had been entirely justified in their opinion. From the Dothraki Sea, a gigantic khalasar was approaching to extinguish their culture and way of living.

Never since the Battle of the Three Thousand four hundred years ago had a Dothraki force been willing to defy the walls of Qohor. The fate of Khal Temmo was too well-known. The khalasars passing from time to time in the Free City had been bribed or cajoled to let the city in peace. But the mass of horses and men invading in 301AC was not coming with peaceful or tolerant intentions. The Qhohorik emissaries' skulls being placed on pikes were there to erase the last doubts. The Dothraki came to raid, sack and destroy. They came to laid waste to Eastern Essos. Their chief, a khal named Vrasso, had defeated and absorbed no less than six khalasars in the last months, and was now one of the Dothraki war commanders publically proclaiming his destiny was to be the Stallion Who Mounts the World.

Qohor did not really care for any of the Dothraki traditions and prophecies, but there were about eighty thousand horses in Vrasso's khalasar, and half of them were mounted by men of fighting age. Forty thousand barbarians were a large threat, no matter their origin or their tactics. And Qohor had not the armies required to stop them.

Oh, the Qohorik were confident to hold the walls of their beloved city, but it wouldn't save them in the end. The greatest danger coming from the Dothraki was always their capacity to ravage the surrounding lands with a frightening speed, and the Dothraki horses made sure no pursuing force would be able to catch and fight them with remote chances of success. The Dothraki did not need to breach the impossibly high walls of Qohor. Starving more than half a million men, women and children into submission would do the job more surely than any blade or arrow.

However, the Qohorik had one last card to play and it was one of pride. Four hundred years ago twenty-five thousand Dothraki had been humiliated by three thousand Unsullied, a blow in terms of prestige and fame the barbarians had never recovered. A crushing majority of the skirmishes and battles between Dothraki and Unsullied which had been fought with acceptable numbers since then had turned to the advantage of the slave warriors of Astapor. It was on this shame the Qohorik upper classes counted on now. In a desperation move, Qohor emptied itself of its armies. Eleven thousand Unsullied and three thousand heavy cavalry were now positioned in front of the outer fortifications. At the same time, one thousand and seven hundred archers were positioned on the ramparts and portcullis. Large ballista, trebuchets and catapults were readied. The trap had been tended and it was anything but subtle. A mediocre Westerosi or Essossi general would have noticed it, laughed, and gone on the banks of the Darkwater to pillage, confident that sooner or later Qohor would starve and the Unsullied, as formidable as they were, would prove inefficient without water and food.

But Khal Vrasso was a Dothraki, and the aforementioned strategy, while logical, would have been qualified as cowardly and meek by his bloodriders and screamers. Plus there was also a feeling of long-awaited vengeance, the opportunity to finally destroy the Unsullied and their vaunted reputation. Astapor was no more, courtesy of Queen Daenerys Targaryen; now the Stallion Who Mounted the World was going to erase their famous 'goods' forever from the Essossi tales and legends.

Khal Vrasso waited until the dawn of the next day to concentrate his troops. Then forty thousand warriors charged and the rest was history. Thousands of arrows rose to the sky, eclipsing the sun for a brief moment. Large clouds of dust were dispersed by the charge of so many horses. And then the Dothraki slammed into the Unsullied. The screamers of the Eastern plains had brought long lances, a bloodthirsty mentality and the mass of their horses at full gallop. The Unsullied had even longer pikes, large shields, and a moral which left no place to doubt. The collision was terrible for both sides. Under the impact, hundreds of pikes, spears and weapons were broken. Horses were torn apart. Men were thrown in the air. Bloody parts of everything which composed a human being were spread in ghastly quantities. It was a horrible spectacle. The first line of the Unsullied had been perforated, with the second line and the third line fighting for their lives.

Despite this, the casualty bill was still in favour of Qohor. In the middle of the melee it was difficult to acknowledge it, but the archers on top of the walls had launched a volley behind the vanguard of Dothraki screamers, massacring the second wave of Vrasso assault, and stopping the momentum of the cavalry charge. Little by little, the weight of the cavalry attack failed, allowing the archers by whole platoons to target entire sections of horselords and murder them with a relative impunity. Finally Vrasso in person ordered a temporary withdrawal, the usual tactic of slamming into the enemy having clearly not accomplished anything besides killing three thousand Unsullied and seven thousand Dothraki.

The second assault was far more dangerous. For this one, the Dothraki attacked from the south at noon and with the sun in their back, partially blinding the archers and siege engines which had butchered them in the previous attack. The survivors of the first attack had also been divided into two prongs, with each division been itself formed into five waves. Warcries sounded, and the Dothraki khalasar came back for avenge their failures and the deaths of so many of their fellows. Once again, they were defeated. It was not Vrasso's fault. In the second attack, the great Khal had been shredded by a score of arrows, his attire making him a shining and easy target in the middle of the day. So were his five sons. And half of his bloodriders. The small discipline which had been ingrained in the Dothraki died here and there, and close to twenty-five thousand horses and their cavaliers pressed on, avid to defeat the Unsullied and paint the walls of Qohor in red colour. In pure loss. The Dothraki had been fighting for a good part of the day and were beginning to tire. At each occasion, the Unsullied had rotated their first lines, presenting fresh men for each new challenge. To make a greater difference, the Unsullied had been rather static, while the Dothraki doctrine of warfare (if such a thing existed in the Dothraki minds) emphasised mobility.

The battle ceased to be a clash and turned to a massacre. Five or six thousand Dothraki had already lost their fidels four-legged companions and were now forced to fight their way on foot across the Unsullied. They were the first to die. Going with arakhs against heavy infantry could result in nothing else. The men on Qohor fortifications continued to destroy piecemeal the Dothraki ranks. The arrows and the rocks left trail of destruction in their wake. The Dothraki hesitated. Their ranks had little ferocity left in them. Some began to throw themselves at their enemies, in some cases without any protection or weapon. It was the time the heavy Qohorik cavalry dissimulated in the northern woods chose to leave their hidden camp and fall on the rear of the Dothraki disorganised khalasar. The Essossi cavalry had left in the middle of the night the Unsullied to camp in the forest of Qohor, at the same time sounding the trumpets and other loud instruments to make their enemies believe they had retreated inside their fortress. The ruse had worked, the Dothraki never looking in their back after the beginning of the second assault. And now three thousand cavalry fell on the exhausted and leaderless barbarians. The consequence of this simple but deadly strategy was a one-sided slaughter. Then the Unsullied advanced and it was over. The Dothraki non-fighters tried to escape, but the Qohorik saw no reason to show mercy. They were over forty thousand women, children and slaves in Vrasso's caravan; after two days of pursuit the numbers had gone down to approximately four thousand. The rest were dead or captured, destined to a long life of slavery or the black altars of the Black Goat of Qohor. Of the forty thousand Dothraki screamers having engaged, less than five thousand were left alive, and most them were discovering the joys of being prisoner of war in this dark period.

It was a magnificent victory. Yet Qohor was unable to take fully advantage of it. Close to six thousand Unsullied were lying dead on the grounds before Qohor, and these peerless warrior could not be replaced any time soon. But the most worrying signs were not the losses taken by the eunuch warriors. It was the unknown magic permeating the battlefield. According to the magic practitioners in the city, the northern winds carried power absent for centuries in this part of Essos. The effects were already visible. Altars which had been dry and neat suddenly saw blood filling them. Corpses being gathered by the burial parties on the battlefield twitched and spasmed hours after their decapitation. According to various witnesses, the most common explanation of the time was that a magical phenomenon was bringing back magic into this world. Explorers were sent to find a more complete explanation, and all bodies of the battle and the sacrifices were burnt as rapidly as possible.

The Qohorik alas were not the target of this new insidious threat brought by the forces of Night and Winter. On an island far to the west, the spectral blades of the Others were going to strike. The Second Battle of Dragonstone was about to begin.


	77. Dread or Defeat

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the North, the Dreadfort or Widow's Watch.

raw666: That is indeed the greatness weakness of the dragons. As long as your allies are mixed with your enemies, you can't bring down dragonfire on them without roasting everyone. Yes, Daenerys still cares about not slaughtering her allies. The problem is that the persons she is currently allied with are not legion. And that Viserys did his best in her childhood to present her a very distorted view of Westeros.

X59: Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I agree the emotional baggage is not here for the Far East and every place we haven't seen in the books. I will do my best to make the few chapters which will be written about Yi Ti and this theatre enticing, but there will be not many of them in any case. I will concentrate of course in the great fight against the Others in Westeros and the consequences of Daenerys intervention in Western Essos.

Paul: Yes, the Dothraki are always using the same tactics, and while they did more damage than at Volantis, the fact is their ways to wage war are rapidly becoming obsolete.

Qohor for the moment is not going to fight anyone. The Dothraki have understood attacking them was a very bad idea. The Others are still far away. In the long-term, the resurgence of magic and the various slave uprisings across the continent are going to create new issues. Qohor like the other Free Cities will not emerge unchanged from this period.

Margaery Tyrell...I see her more like in the books, to be honest, where her sexual preferences are more ambiguous. Not the open lesbian of the show. As for her public support of the Faith, no one is in her head and good politicians can make you believe everything...

The Alagoano: We will see... magical powers or not, Qohor's most pressing menace right now are the Dothraki, and they have just received a bloody lesson. It will be some time before anyone wants to defy the forces of Qohor.

melubarv: Of the two swords which were forged from Ice, one is in the hands of Robb Stark (Wolf's Paw) and the other is with Stannis (Black Dawn, though the rumours of everyone wielding it dies have left it in the royal coffers after a few bloody and fatal incidents).

 **Dread or Defeat**

 **The Battle of the North Part III**

 _"Dragons. Why has it to be always dragons?"_ Anonymous Northerner, 301AC.

 _"House Flint will endure. And we will come back."_ Lady Lyessa Flint, 301AC.

 _"Kill the White Walkers. Ignore the wights."_ Commander Cotter Pyke, 301AC.

 _"I will not wait in this citadel the end of my kingdom. Lord Umber! Prepare to sally out!"_ King Robb Stark, 301AC.

 _" The walls of White Harbor are ready to uphold our promise."_ Lord Wyman Manderly, 301AC.

The fury and the hate of the Others had been severely blunted in the Battle of Winterfell, the two Battles of Bears Islands, the resistance of Last Hearth and the fights taking place in the western peaks. Unfortunately, all these battles had taken place in the western theatre of the North, where humanity had major defensive advantages, whether there were magical, simply based on terrain, Others lack of discernment or the indomitable will of the defenders.

In the east, most of these advantages disappeared like the sun in the middle of the Long Night. What made Winterfell a killing ground of wights and White Walkers was as much its millenary history as the runes and the walls present to bleed the assaults of the undead legions. Without the former or the latter, there was no need for the Others to launch themselves at one fortress or another for the sake of leaving this world. There was no island inhabited with a pure martial culture to protect the flanks that the Others had to take before descending southwards. Skagos had already fallen, and alas the use of the iceberg fleet had diminished the casualties of the Winter armies in this sector to an acceptable rate. But the worst was the terrain. Between the Last River and the White Knife, the Northern lands were hilly and covered here and there by small forests, with a few mountains and ravines here and there to divide these parts from the west. It was dangerous terrain for the humans, especially in the middle of a winter, but it was hardly impassable. And where humans could run or walk, then the dead corpses and their masters of ice could follow.

King Robb Stark, Lord Greatjon Umber and the main force on the field of the Great Army of the North had just the time to take refuge in the Dreadfort with the majority of the population living in the Bolton lands that the enemy was already there. The delay the Others had taken with their wights being wiped out by Hother Umber's ultimate sacrifice had just been enough to reach the ancestral home of House Bolton.

On the other hand, the Dreadfort was no Winterfell, had no link with Brandon the Builder or any other legendary hero of the First Long Night. The castle had been built seven thousand years ago give it or so, an impressive number of years to be sure, but roughly one millennia after the Others were driven out the human realms. And the Night's Queen had learnt from her mistakes. The lead sorceress of the Others ordered some twenty thousand wights plus two hundred of her White Walkers infantry to surround the Dreadfort...and then continued southwards ignoring the forces under King Robb Stark.

For the men standing guard on top of the towers and the ramparts, it was a terrifying sight, demoralising to their already badly tested morale. They were here, encircled, tired from their long march, the battles and all their ordeals, and the Enemy instead of standing for one great and decisive battle was choosing to block them while the core of the abominations forces went to ravage the lands of House Hornwood and Manderly. Important columns of White Walkers cavalry and infantry, new ice wyverns and other fantastic animals were visible in the distance, the blue lights allowing human eyes to perceive in the darkness the size of the threat they had been confronting all along. Wave upon wave of new wights, risen from Beyond-the Wall, the Battle of the Wall or forgotten burial grounds the Northerners had forgotten in ages past. Over this herd of destruction which should not have been out of place in a frozen version of the Seven Hells, the dragon of the Night's Queen flew again, finally healed of its injuries (a recovery certainly boosted by magical means, as no animal healed that fast) and to emphasize how perilous the position of humanity had become, there was a smaller dragon following it. Tyrion Lannister had managed to defeat one of the fell beasts, but the forces of Winter had apparently one more. In hindsight, there would be an elegant symmetry with the Mother of Dragons (if one ignored Dreadwing in the rapport of force). Three dragons of ice to fight three dragons of fire. But the North had been cut from much of the information source coming from Western Essos save the most outlandish rumours, and even if they had believed them immediately, the dragons of Queen Daenerys Targaryen weren't here to help, contrary to the ice ones. It took about twenty hours for the army of the Night's Queen to pass the Dreadfort and disappear out of sight, and in this interval of time few words were spoken by King Robb Stark and his main commanders. A few bards tried to lighten the ambience by singing a few happy songs like _Wolves in the Night_ or The Bear and the Maiden Fair, but their efforts were half-hearted and did not last long. The Dreadfort was not a joyous fortress, but in the first days of 301AC the gloomy atmosphere was reaching unbearable levels. Pessimism reigned in the ranks, no warrior having the least idea of defeating such a large force if the Others did not attacked the strongholds. The battle fought in the breach of the Wall had proved how bad humans were outclassed when they fought in open ground. A solution had to be found, yet it escaped the most brilliant minds retrenched in the Dreadfort.

During this time, the Others had not stayed idle. Disdaining the fortresses of Hornwood and Ramsgate, the Night's Queen executed a pincer movement towards the Flint castle of Widow's Watch. Many thought the movement was so prescient it reeked or sorcery, and there were some arguments in this favour. Lord Wyman Manderly had sent most of his spare forces to protect Hornwood, while hundreds of Wall survivors under Commanders Cotter Pyke and Jon Snow were busy making Ramsgate, seat of House Woolfield, impregnable or as close it could be against the White Walkers. But Widow's Watch? Little supplies and reinforcements had been awarded to defend the easternmost castle of the North.

Of course, it was not a determination of Lord Manderly and the rest of the men in charge of the northern war effort to see the Flint castle be submerged by the White Walkers and their dead thralls. But options were definitely limited. The Kingdom of the North was still reeling from the recent defeat at the Wall, and news of the victories, such as Bear Island and Winterfell, would not come fortnights after their outcome. Widow's Watch was terribly difficult to resupply, not to mention the travel times between White Harbor were particularly long with the Shivering Sea delivering the nastiest conditions of weather seen in decades. The Flints had a small harbour for the score of light galleys they owned, but the cliffs and the rest of the rocky terrain would have pushed the prospect of any campaign at the very limit of human logistic capacities. The large ships of House Manderly wouldn't have been able to offload their loads here, that was a certainty.

Anyway it didn't matter. Against the endless enemy coming, the walls of Widow's Watch were simply not tall enough to withstand an assault launched by the same beings that had fractured the Wall. Lady Lyessa Flint was quick to evacuate the non-fighters once the situation revealed itself known into its full horror. With the first sightings of the iceberg fleet, Braavosi and Northern ships did their best to take away every man, woman and child before the snowy apocalypse arrived for Widow's Watch.

In spite of the best efforts of every party involved, it was not enough. All the inhabitants of the peninsula had to flee to Widow's Watch when the wights came by tens of thousands, a refugee crisis which had never been prepared for because for centuries, the threats to this part of the North had come from pirates, smugglers and slavers preying on the defenceless and poorest settlements. The assistance of Braavos, White Harbor and Ramsgate was not enough. But with the biggest hulls being forbidden to accost, more ships would not have necessarily made a large difference. In the end, there were close to five hundred people when the hammer of the Others came. Most elderly and crippled men and women. Lady Lyessa Flint had wanted to stay and command the defence of her seat, but her soldiers had managed to convince her that her newborn son Eddard would need his mother in these difficult times.

A fortunate affair, because the Others certainly did not intend to offer quarter or mercy in their assaults. The wights did not stop an instant from their long, endless, charge, rushing directly to Widow's Watch using neither subterfuge nor diversion. It was just a headlong assault, soaking casualties by the hundreds. Then they began to climb the wall. Now, Widow's Watch main protection may not have had the height, the width and the smoothness of Winterfell, but the cold and the ice reigning in these sunless conditions would have rendered this challenge perilous for a well-trained man at the peak of his physical health. But it was a dreadful and repetitive point to say: the Others did not care. The participation of the corpses in White Walkers strategy was synonym to meat-shield or crow fodder. Hundreds of wights may be lost in storming a fortress, but their magic could always raise thousands more. And to storm Widow's Watch this ruthless point of view was not wrong. There were only five hundred defenders after all, and less than half had the energy and the will to give time to the last ships to go away. Dozens of wights went over the rampart and the duels between steel, bronze, teeth, fangs and magic started. One by one, the living perished. Until the last. Some of the garrison tried to partially burn the castle when the portcullis, walls, gates and armouries were overrun, but the cold and the lack of inflammable substances ensured this desperate tactic did not succeed.

To the survivors in the cold sea still seeing the coast, it was not a comforting scene. An army of dead was now silent, fixing them with their brilliant blue eyes. The only sources of noise were the ice beasts shrieking in the distance. Widow's Watch had proven unable to stop the Night. From the north, the first icebergs were drawing near. According to one intrepid Braavosi captain having taken the risk to close the distance, these improvised method of navigation were crawling with undead. It was time to go, and hope other fortresses would be able to resist this army of winter.

Speaking of the Others, the Night's Queen had put her troops back into movement. With Widow's Watch destroyed, the passage of the Others fleet was now unopposed, and it had given time to the White Walkers sorcerers the time to make an attempt at destabilising their enemy before all was ready for the great confrontation, leading to the Second Battle of Dragonstone. This distraction from the main front was now terminated. The Others considerable mass of wights and creatures of ice and nightmare raced in direction of White Harbor, freezing the Broken Branch on several leagues. Winterfell may have stopped the Others dead, but the seat of House Manderly could give the formations of the Long Night the manpower to pulverise Moat Cailin and the domain of Brandon the Builder. Small-sized mass of wights were sent to blockade the bypassed castles of Ramsgate and Hornwood.

But the Others leadership had made in some ways one its worst mistakes: assuming human garrisoned in a citadel couldn't sally out and search a massive battle with the White Walkers. At Winterfell, the numerical advantage and the sheer exhaustion of the garrison forbid any sallies outside the gates. But it was not true at the Dreadfort or Ramsgate. Seeing the Night's Queen having left and was not coming back, Lord Greatjon Umber had led a daring strike in the middle of the besieging Dreadfort army, and shattered the two hundred ice abominations, with even half a score being taken prisoners (which made the Dreadfort the only fortress able to boast by the voice of its inhabitants it has imprisoned everything living and non-living in its long and infamous history). The Others had become too complacent, too certain humans would prefer starvation to another battle. They had been wrong, as were they concerning the stock of available dragonglass. The Greatjon opened a trail of destruction by sheer fury alone, and the soldiers of Last Hearth's vengeance for their abandoned home was astonishing to behold. The wights, deprived of any leadership in the vicinity, were massacred by the thousands by King Robb Stark and his troops.

The case of Ramsgate was different. Hornwood may have had not the forces to disperse in a counter-offensive, but the Woolfield citadel had been massively reinforced by Free Folk, members of the defunct Night's Watch, some Braavosi sea dancers and volunteers from White Harbour. None of these groups had good coordination with the Others, but they were one of the first forces correctly outfitted with obsidian and the Night's Queen had sent less than ten thousand wights and forty Others to force them out of the war. The resulting battle was so one-sided it was barely deserving the name. Jon Snow and Cotter Pyke took in a flank attack the expeditionary force, which in a strange mistake had been entirely devoid of aerial support and reconnaissance assets. Once more time, the wights revealed to be useless once the masters who had brought them back from oblivion took an obsidian arrowhead between the eyes.

Moreover, with four thousand men King Robb Stark ambushed many wight forces on his pursuit of the Others great army, and relieved Hornwood so quickly only a few score wights had time to be in range of the archers defending the location on top of the walls. And now, the King in the North and his half-brother Jon Snow united close to nine thousand men to strike the White Walkers in the rear. The pieces were now in place for a battle which was going to decide the fate of the Seven Kingdoms, or so the living hoped. From the west, an army emerged from the Neck, banners of the Burning Heart in head. At White Harbor, thousands of Northerners picked a weapon and tended their bows. Because in the horizon, a silent mass of corpses was in view. So big mortal eyes had difficulty to register, the number of wights was literally beyond any pre-War of the Eight Kings comprehension. The huge armies were ready to slaughter each other. Why then there was a general feeling of unease in the air? Somehow, few in the ranks of the Westerosi troops were optimistic enough to believe the White Walkers had no more last tricks to demonstrate on the living...


	78. Reforging Lightbringer

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Dragonstone and I don't own the volcano.

raw666: Thanks! As for the next battles, they're definitely coming. But I will not say where...

X59: Stannis will not come alas in this chapter, my attention has stuck elsewhere and the chapter on the elder Baratheon and White Harbor will be a bit delayed.

Think smaller concerning the Others. The human jailers have first to convince the White Walkers to speak in a language they understand. Yes, they're that uncooperative...

Thanks again for the support, and yes the White Walkers have not emptied all their arsenal of evil surprises. More are coming in this chapter.

Paul: Yep, Widow's Watch will be resettled. Part of it, admittedly, will be a major human decision to pass a message to the Others. The one which is very insulting... But there will be also political and cultural factors in play too. When a population has lived centuries upon said lands, being forced to live away from their cherished homes is not easy to accept...

The Dreadfort indeed definitely will live to its reputation, though the battle of White Harbour will only happen in two weeks or three.

Good advice for Yi-Ti and Essos. Will see if I can manage this feat.

Jaime may have his last-stand moment...but even Boros Blount had some troops with him and he was not a prisoner. Jaime is crippled, and has been severely weakened by his lengthy imprisonment at Riverrun.

The Alagoano: Well Stannis did it once at Highgarden against Euron. He may be forced to redo it once again before this story is over...

melubarv: A 'maybe'. I want to keep the mystery on the Ice issue, sorry...

In the books, all we had were Cersei and the Faith accusations in AFFC. Which are certainly false by the way...In the show, it is more complicated. More than a guess or a feeling due to the actors' performance. No proof of it, not until season 6 at least...

wawo20: It's a history book format, the author must create some foreshadowing (grin).

ProCannonFodder: Many thanks for the compliments but alas I have to work for a living, though writing is a fine hobby to pass time...

 **Reforging Lightbringer**

 **The Second Battle of Dragonstone Part I**

 _"I will not ask this animal to pincer me to prove if I'm dreaming or not."_ Anonymous Braavosi, 301AC.

 _"Repairing the holy sword will be the most difficult task of our lives. Do not disturb us, under any pretext. Even should the island sink into the Narrow Sea."_ Red Priest Sorio to Gaario Slassar, 301AC.

 _"Let's redefine being out of reach of the Others. I think the Summer Islands are nice this time of the year. As for the rest..."_ Ser Justin Massey, hearing of the Second Battle of Dragonstone, 301AC.

 _"Is bringing a God to the battlefield not violating the rules?"_ Anonymous defender of Dragonstone, 301AC.

Dragonstone. Birthplace of Aegon the Conqueror. A volcanic island, granted to the Heir of the Iron Throne during two hundred and eighty-three years after the Targaryen dynasty united Westeros by fire and blood. After the demise of Aerys the Mad at the point of Ser Jaime Lannister's golden sword and the escape of the last Targaryens, the island had been governed by Stannis Baratheon. Damp and dreary, the main strength of the place lied in its strategic position allowing its owner to control the naval trade in Blackwater Bay. For the island itself, the points of interest were few and far between. The castle of Dragonstone, built on one face of the volcano, containing the famous Chamber of the Painted Table, the first and most exact representation of Westeros ever done in this era. The small fishing village lying at the base of it, serving as one base of the Royal fleet. The Dragonmont, the volcano itself was also worthy of seeing, though only from afar.

All in all, Dragonstone was a gloomy sight, and the vast majority of the merchant and warships coming near the island passed without stopping, believing laying at anchor in such a dark place would be the first step on the path of being cursed and damned. Recently, there had been a change of ownership. The small Baratheon garrison King Stannis Baratheon had left on Dragonstone had been defeated and forced to surrender, to be replaced by a more considerable Braavosi one. Sealord Fregar had ordered the source of the dragonglass supply had to be protected, and the citadel was also to be a naval base should any ships from the Stormlands, former Crownlands and Riverlands try to sail in the high seas and establish themselves as raiders, corsairs or pirates. Fifty warships surrounded the volcanic island at any given time, supported by a formation of four thousand men, half of them equipped with longbows and redoubtable crossbows. With the number of ballista, scorpions and siege engines pointed towards the sea, any conventional attack force would have been slaughtered. And to make the military situation even more secure, Queen Daenerys Targaryen was on her way with thousands more troops.

From the top of the dragon-shaped towers, the Braavosi commanders under Commander Gaario Slassar could felt confident their control in this area was not going to slip before the Mothers of Dragons came. The arrival of Red Priests coming from Braavos itself was simply one more defence added to the thousand of gargoyles supposed to terrify any living opponent. Alas, the enemy which was going to come was certainly not human, and Westerosi philosophers are still trying to decide if the White Walkers were somewhat alive or forces purely moved by ice and death.

It was not the Braavosi fault. It was common knowledge among the sailors frequenting Blackwater Bay that the currents brought a lot of objects to Dragonstone. In time of peace, filth, empty wine bottles or fallen branches hauled by the Wendwater and the tides could arrive here. In time of war, it was not incredible to see the hulks of war galleys or merchants having been preyed by pirates going to break themselves upon the reefs and the high cliffs of the black-coloured island. And with the wreck of these once proud ships came the corpses. Near the castle and the harbour, it wasn't that much a problem. There were always a few Braavosi unlucky enough when the games of cards and dices ended tasked to the removal of these bodies. But Dragonstone was vast and mostly empty between the reigns of Aegon III the Dragonbane and Robert I Baratheon. Dragons had for long decades been the true masters of Dragonstone barren rocks. Without them, the best guides to explore the island and burn every corpse which floated to Dragonstone were gone. And the gargoyles decorating Dragonstone, are hideous as they were, had no warning properties.

The assault came with the fog of the morning. Or at least what would have been the morning in summer. The sun had ceased to appear fortnights ago after all. Cold northern winds began to blow over Blackwater Bay, clear signs of the ice sorcery the Others wielded. The men and women still asleep at this hour saw their sleep being tormented by incomprehensible nightmares. Dismaying sounds spread over the water. Ice began to form where the water was low in depth.

And then the dead began to rise. The Braavosi had heard the dreadful tales of the North, though, and realised immediately what they were going to face. Shouts of alarm rose in the sky, ordering the torches and the obsidian to be brought to the frontlines.

It was not a moment too soon. From forgotten caverns, holes half-submerged, dangerous gaps, smoking craters, the dead came back to life. War had come to Dragonstone.

The first move of the wights was anything but subtle. It was the classic attack in wave. In the first instants of battle, dozens of Braavosi fell but this did not last. Soon a shield wall was formed, and the redoubtable sea dancers entered the clash of death. Wights might not feel pain, but they certainly were hampered by the losses of their arms and their legs. Dragonglass arrowheads began to soar in the air. Fires spread. The lines held. The wights charged and charged again only to be brought down and pulverised in small fragments before being incinerated.

Soon there was only living Braavosi standing in front of the Dragonstone citadel. Soldiers raised their swords and weapons in victory. At the light of hundreds of wights burning, the Essossi soldiers cheered. Their joy was...premature to say the least.

A series of shrieks sounded in the air. Shrieks no birds would have made while living. At the same time, a mass came of darkness came from the south of Dragonstone. The first wights had been the distraction. Now was the real attack. Hundreds of bird wights executed a suicidal dive in front of the Targaryen-built fortress, while on land hundreds of corpses, so many a proper estimate was impossible in these winter conditions, mounted to the assault. The Braavosi soldiers' ability and courage could not be denied. Yet they were simply mortals, and fighting on open ground like this, as the men of King Robb Stark could have told them, was a losing proposition unless you had an overwhelming advantage. Which they definitely had not.

The wight attack came like an elephant across a cavalry charge. Preceded mere seconds by the undead birds, the archers had not been able to intercept their opponents in so little time. The garrison of Dragonstone was hit in a warhammer fashion. Blind force against dispersed shield. The blind force won. The defenders were forced to withdraw step by step and back to back to the citadel, always in contact with the animated corpses, animal and human. In a sound of the end of the world, the black gates of Dragonstone closed. There were now only abominations outside the doors.

The warships which had been stationed in the vicinity of the island were unable to intervene. An increasing surface of ice was forming an imperfect circle around Dragonstone, preventing possible human reinforcements to land and change the rapport of force. One captain had still decided to take the risk. His ship sinking having shattered a small part of the ice needed to reach the grounds was warning enough for his counterparts to avoid the same folly. Well that and the former small harbour of Dragonstone crawling with wights.

Once all was said and done, the situation wasn't completely critical. The walls of the powerful black fortress had not been breached, and the majority of the civilians had been evacuated in time, avoiding them the unpleasant fate of becoming more cannon fodder for the Others. The majority of the Braavosi fleet was intact, just unable to participate in the battle. A frustrating situation to be sure, but hardly a disastrous one. Everyone knew Targaryen reinforcements were on the way, and if dragons could not burn this ice and a few hundred meagre wights, then the prowess of the Mothers of Dragons had been seriously overestimated.

However something was cringing in the minds of the men and women present. The Others had not currently reached White Harbor, according to the latest reports. How by all the deities and demons of this world had they managed to raise a force of wights on Dragonstone without anybody being the wiser?

The answer was rather simple, although the sailors assisting to this horrifying spectacle needed a few minutes or so to discover it. In the cold water now targeted by the magic of the White Walkers, swam banks of seals, walrus, sharks and other large species of fishes or mammals. All were long dead, showing signs of decay and being permeated by a blue aura which had nothing to do with the water of Blackwater Bay. All had some strange blue crystals implanted in their skins. The men having made the discovery were unable to explain how these devices worked, naturally. But the effects themselves needed no explanation. By using these aquatic wights, the Others had used a shortcut allowing them to strike far beyond any range the Westerosi and the Essossi had thought them capable.

The moment of astonishment did not last. Once revealed, the origin of the threat was assumed simple to beat. Harpoons, fishnets, tridents and a great deal of sharp and pointy weapons created to gut and kill fishes got out of the Braavosi armouries. Under the seas, the wights soon came under the assault of men extremely motivated to kill them. The survival of the besieged garrison depended on them, and the Essossi did not intent to fail their trapped comrades.

But the endeavour was not easy at all in practise. By all reports, the ice crystals imbedded in the fishes skins permitted their Others masters to use them with a far greater flexibility than the basic corpse, and to make matter worse the sea was not an environment where mankind had the advantage over its dwellers. More than once, a shark or a seal evaded the crews' efforts, went to the large...and came back the moment after to freeze Dragonstone surroundings. Fire had no effect in water obviously. The effects of dragonglass would have been a salutary help, but there was little of this on the bridges of the ships, the overwhelming quantity of obsidian lying in the crates in the harbour or in the citadel. Out of reach, a kingdom away for all the good it did at that moment. As for Valyrian Steel, it was not available.

That did not mean the men did not gain the upper hand after a succession of non-fructuous tries. Aquatic animals may be more nimble and swift in the water, but a man had a brain to learn from his mistakes and an arsenal of pointed objects to crush the resistance. The dead cordon tended around the Targaryen island distended and then broke. The ice was not disappearing, but it was not progressing anymore and the solidity of these improvised ice sea was weaker than it had been in the initial stages. If the events had stopped there, it would have been likely no enemy would have been more than ashes to greet the arrival of Queen Daenerys Targaryen to her birthplace.

It was not the case in this triple-cursed darkness where no one could surely say for sure if this was the day or the night. One second the water was limpid and only troubled by the Northern winds. The next, the current saw marine wights appear by the scores, bringing back with them the power for the Others sorcerers to use their cold magic. It would have been bad, the Braavosi sailors having to pursue and defeat for countless hours the fishes who-just-wouldn't-die. The situation turned to catastrophic when the ship _Water's Spear_ found itself pulverised by gigantic pincers. From this destruction emerged a monster of the old times. Best description given by the sailors and the soldiers witnessing this unnatural act was of a gigantic, titanic crustacean. If the crabs had a father, maybe it was here before the tetanised human eyes. Dead or not dead? Difficult to be absolutely sure. This was not a being born of ice, but neither did this creature appearing from some abyss showed any type of injury having caused a demise. Thirty feet high. Pikes and pincers able to render a dragon jealous. A carapace thicker than a hundred armours, able to shrug with disdain the blow of the scorpions shooting at it. And a crystal bigger than a cow on its armoured back to expand the power of freeze by three or four times.

At the sight of this apparition, both the tired fleet and the beleaguered defenders understood their chances of winning this battle had been slim and were now decreasing towards insignificance.

It was at the moment the huge crab extremities touched the soil of the island IT appeared in a flash of blue magic in the middle of the wights herd.

A being with pure white skin, terrifying deep blue eyes, and burning of a non-natural blue fire, which surrounded it like a blue corona. Contrary to the Others warriors and leaders seen until there, there was no sign to indicate if this being was male or female.

A lot of speculations were made on its existence in the years after. First theory was the Night's Queen had found some way to send a magical representation of herself on Dragonstone. Although no one was able to explain the difference in appearance. The second explication was that this White Walker was fulfilling a different role in the Others hierarchy, and as a result had a different look.

The third main hypothesis was the ice crystals had summoned a shard of the Great Other to annihilate the enemies of the White Walkers. And unfortunately for the humans, the fantastic cold reigning and originating from this very being made this theory look more and more attractive by the moment. As did the powerful blasts of blue lightning being emitted from the crab's crystal to the white being.

A horn sounded from underwater, and the crab advanced in the direction of the Dragonstone citadel, taking without a sound of pain scorpion bolts and massive rocks which would have gutted a mammoth. At the same time, the pale being led half of his undead army on the slopes of the Dragonmount.

The Others had not elaborated a plan of this complexity and thrown untold quantities of magic to massacre a few thousands humans unimportant on the strategic game. In an enflamed cavern at the top of the volcano, the Red Priests were in the process of reforging a sword. And not any weapon of war.

Lightbringer.

The sword of Azor Ahai, the burning sword supposed to be wielded by the Chosen of R'hllor in the final battle against the Great Other.

Kept during millennia in an underground vault of Dragonstone, and only recently retrieved by a searching Braavosi party. The blade had lost its fire. It was broken in four parts. But the enchantments and the metal remained. And with the return of magic in this world, Red Priest Sorio and his acolytes were confident they would be able to make whole again the sword destined to give humanity a chance to end the Second Long Night.

If the wights and their nightmarish leader climbing Dragonmount at this very instant didn't kill them first, of course...


	79. A Song of Ice and Fire

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Dragonstone, Daenerys Targaryen and I don't own the volcano.

Plenty of speculation on who will wield Lightbringer. But rest assured dear readers, I have no intention to tell the name of Azor Ahai before a very dramatic reveal...

raw666: Completely true. This new revelation about the Others capabilities are certain to cause consternation and panic in the human forces. Fortunately, the cost in magic and crystals which have to be fused with the corpses make it a very tiring tactic. The Others can't do it everywhere they want, in fact Dragonstone was pretty much at the limit of their range. The Reach and Dorne were and still are not on the list of potential options.

The troops with Stannis won't be running home, but it's true many potential reinforcements will be delayed or simply cancelled at the light of the Second Battle of Dragonstone.

X59: Of course it will! The first sword called Lightbringer breaking at Highgarden had somewhat eroded the will for more followers to join. Now that there's a true Lightbringer and once people can see it, support of R'hllor is going to rise again. It's going to be long-term, though. Winter is here, communications are disrupted and many men think about eating first, and do not really care about religion now.

There will be indeed new units unleashed on the battlefield, as the turn of the war does not go in favour of the White Walkers. The Others want to create a maximum of damage to upset the balance.

I decided who Azor Ahai was when I began this story. But it will not be revealed until the time is right.

Paul: Artillery is not going to be invented in the next years, no, but it will be by the time the author is writing the story (note that I will not give a precise date for this moment). The Red Priests who participate in this battle are a very minor part of the total numbers existing in Braavos, to say nothing of the rest of the Free Cities despite the bloody insurrection at Volantis.

Most of the Westerosi are indeed thankful it wasn't they who had to fight this battle. Or they will, once they know the battle has been fought off.

For the next chapter, we will return at White Harbor. And no, Justin Massey doesn't desert. He simply laughs, says a lot of great empty-headed sentences and charge in the direction of the fight.

The Alagoano: Super-villain lair is an excellent idea! I think several authors had already explored the issue (really a dark grim place with a volcano...Sauron will be dancing with joy). When you think about it, Aerys the Mad would have been a perfect candidate to be the lord and master of this place...

Vwchick: Thanks for the compliments and the support. Hope the story will continue to please you.

 **A Song of Ice and Fire**

 **The Second Battle of Dragonstone Part II**

 _"My shares of the Iron Bank to the one who slays this crab!"_ Braavosi Commander Gaario Slassar, 301AC.

 _"For the Mother of Dragons and for the Dawn!"_ Battlecry of the Targaryen forces at the Second Battle of Dragonstone, 301AC.

 _"Return in the darkness monster! This is the domain of R'hllor and you are not wanted here!"_ Red Priest Sorio, 301AC.

 _"Bring the sword to Azor Ahai."_ Last words of Red Priest Sorio, 301AC.

 _"I love the smell of roasted crab in the morning."_ Braavosi Commander Gaario Slassar, 301AC.

 _"No White Walker was present here. I fear the next battles will be more difficult, not easier."_ Ser Barristan Selmy, 300AC.

The first attack of the gigantic crab known forever for posterity as Dunk the Lunk (a name spread by a sailor of Leng ancestry named Usotsuki) against the fortress of Dragonstone was a true massacre. The siege engines having failed to stop the massive crustacean, the archers, swordsmen and pikemen present on the ramparts watched with undisguised fear the monster having emerged from the frozen Bay shatter the main gates with four strikes of its pincers. The wights were now free to enter the Targaryen citadel, and in the mean time the pincers delivered blows to the men fighting on the portcullis and the upper levels of the outer fortifications.

Yet the Braavosi did not flee. While undoubtedly it had to do with the fact there was realistically no place to run, the men of the seas held their positions, launching waves after waves of arrows, rocks and bolts from the siege engines. The crab was invulnerable to this storm of steel, iron, stone and obsidian, but the 'normal' wights, no matter if there were birds, animals or human corpses, soon littered the grounds before Dragonstone. Not many of the Others servants managed to set foot inside the castle, being received at each key point by long spears or a sword strike in the neck. None came out, the lighting of funeral pyres giving a limpid indication of their second deaths.

The White Walkers controlling these troops had also to realise having unleashed a gigantic beast was proving in hindsight a mistake. On the plus side, no human-forged weapon seemed to be able to harm significantly the tough carapace of the crab, but the drawbacks were also evident. Impossible to pass the gates of the Dragonstone castle, Dunk was too big. The crab was unable to climb over the outer walls, its agility and swiftness being less than impressive. And the pincers attacks, no matter how destructive they were, had relatively little effect on the dragon-fused black walls of the castle forged by the Valyrians at the height of their power. The Braavosi refused to break and concede defeat, although half of their numbers were dead (and burnt) by that point. The general situation on this front had turned to stalemate. At least the soldiers of the black citadel could console themselves they were doing far more damage to their opponents than the humans present on the flank of the volcano.

The two dozen senior Red Priests present on Dragonstone had been completely focused on the task of bringing back Lightbringer to its ancient power, near the top of the Dragonmount. Moment after moment, drip after drip of blood and magic, endless of incantations pronounced in Old Valyrian, the legendary sword was recreated in all its glory, imbibed of a fire able to shatter the Others absolute cold. But the price was terrible to pay. Many men and women present aged years while only hours had passed, the fire ritual consuming their life essences. Servitors willingly cut their veins to have the quota of blood required. Magic required a price to pay for every action done. And the one demanded for Lightbringer was far more than any of the participants had believed before setting a foot on the dark island.

It was also a very vulnerable position. Red Priest Sorio and his fellow R'hllorites being absorbed by their work, the Lord of Light followers were totally in the dark concerning the assault the fortress currently faced. The acolytes having received the ungrateful order of mounting guard outside the cavern where the ritual was happening knew a battle was happening below them, but the orders they had received left them no liberty of manoeuvre to warn their superiors.

The arrival of the monumental wave of wights was thus a very bad situation for the junior R'hllorites. Receiving the command to slay every enemy which try to break through you and your comrades is fairly easy. Trying to accomplish it when hundreds of corpses and a pale humanoid freezing everything on its path were charging, climbing and rushing towards your lines were entirely something else.

Still, that didn't mean the Priests of the Lord of Light couldn't do significant damage. A volcano was a source of fire, boosting their magical powers to degrees which would have been difficult to imagine three years ago. The first wights to arrive in range received scores of fire balls, fire auras shattering the Others influence leaving the undead without direction, illusions of lava and countless enemies, plus a few beings of shadows and flames. The impact was devastating, and should the wights had been alone, it would most likely have turned the greater part in cinders and repulsed the rest the time for reinforcements to arrive.

The presence of the strange Other, however, changed the rapport of strength immensely. Drawing a long and pale sword, the ice being shot a ray of pure ice towards the servants of R'hllor, killing five of them in a single direct attack and destroying their cohesion. A new series of fire balls were thrown, but half of them were intercepted by wights corpses, and the rest had no effect, freezing on place before touching this magical abomination. The Other attacked again, and all was over. Half a dozen young R'hllorites fled in every direction pursued by the undead, but the rest were slain without mercy or an acknowledgement of their courage.

But their sacrifice had not been useless. Focused on the fall of Dragonstone, the Other forces had neglected to conserve some of their numbers to keep an eye on the Narrow Sea. Of course, it wouldn't have been an issue if the reinforcements were all conventional soldiers. The island of Dragonstone was now entirely surrounded by a large mass of ice, which had forced the Braavosi warships to put more distance not less between the besieged citadel and themselves. Barely visible in the lights of the volcano and the citadel of Dragonstone, a large fleet emerged for battle, welcomed by the hurrahs of the initial warships hunting the fish corpses.

A monumental roar shook the seas and the skies. And three large forms soared from the ships to race in a hurricane of wings and destruction towards Dragonstone. Queen Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons had arrived.

The events which followed were completely improvised militarily, and the great majority of today's strategists have to conclude it was a combination of a miracle of all the Gods and the poor strategies of the Others leadership that the Second Battle of Dragonstone didn't turn into disaster of epic proportions. Having no way to execute a proper landing thanks to the ice covering the approaches, the Targaryen troops, close to five thousand men Unsullied and Freedmen in all, debarked from the ships where it shouldn't have been possible, no matter the violence of winter. Ser Barristan Selmy the Bold, Commander of the Queensguard, led the main formation; on his right and left flanks the white knight delegated command to squires he had formed, respectively Tumco Lho and Takrak.

The infantry raced to the island, praying the ice would hold until they had something firm under the thousands of feet. Fortunately, Braavosi preparations had been adequate and the soldiers of the Mother of Dragons were in winter gear; otherwise many would have lost limbs or other vital parts before seeing the first wight.

Because in the air, Daenerys Stormborn Targaryen opening part in the battle of Dragonstone utterly pulverised the undead lines. Riding personally the fearsome black dragon Drogon, with Viserion and Rhaegal close behind, the three dragons unleashed a column of dragonfire which could be seen leagues away. The birds' wights having survived until then disappeared from the sky, carbonised to a degree even bones became ashes. The human and animal wights didn't fare any better. Their numbers were more important, but living or dead, the ability of humans to fight a lizard breathing fire hotter than wildfire was very much limited. One moment the space between the citadel and the harbour was crawling with wights. The instant after, three dragons concentrated their firepower unto them. It was a holocaust of destruction, with only the destruction of King's Landing and the Field of Fire being comparable in sheer fury. The flames mounted to an altitude able to rival the Dragonmount, and the core of the Others expeditionary force to Dragonstone perished without having a single opportunity to strike back. Such was the warmth, two scores of Braavosi fighting on the ramparts were partially blinded by the inferno.

But the Last Targaryen had taken a terrible risk to do so. It had long been acknowledged that this attack in overwhelming force worked because of the confidence of the Others that their ice capabilities would delay enemy reinforcements and they would see a relief force coming long before it came to blows. Should the White Walkers controllers had positioned dead humans with a few captured siege engines to intercept the Mother of Dragons, the result of this initial strike would have been far more costly. Fortunately for the moral of humanity in the Second Long Night, the Others hadn't.

However, Daenerys Targaryen wasn't out of danger. The ice beings had finally realised the danger they were confronted, and the surviving wights having avoided the fire apocalypse rushed on the ice to fight the arriving Essossi. And from the edges of the inferno, the gigantic crab Dunk emerged, its shells darkened and crackled, but very well moving and battle-ready. From the top of the volcano, the commander of the abominations shouted an order in a shrieking voice and the rest of the wights descended the slopes of the mountain to fight while their leader charged the last Red Priests.

The battle became a race against time. The Others needed to slay the magic practitioners before Lightbringer was brought into action and the wights serving as intermediaries for their cold powers were destroyed. Kill the maximum of humans and dragons possible was the order of the day. The Braavosi had to save their garrison, the Targaryen army had to follow their Queen, and above all had to save the island before the forces of Winter grew too powerful to be expulsed from it.

In many ways, the struggle had no reason to continue. By this point, the Others were just throwing good money after bad: their inhuman leader may have been able to handle the dragons of Queen Daenerys Targaryen, but it was obvious the crab was just able to endure the assault of the dragons and the wights were not even able to do that. The crystals used for the assault were progressively sinking with the dead fishes or destroyed by obsidian weapons.

But the Others disregard for their casualties continued unabated. All their wights available, from the depths of the sea to the highest areas of the sky were committed to battle. The crustacean of nightmare was hurled against the humans pressing on Dragonstone shores, while it would have been more intelligent to save it for a more decisive battle. And while the Night's Queen did not make such a mistake later, the Others in control of this battle clearly lacked experience in fighting dragons and didn't realise massed formation not in contact with the enemy were soon-to-be dead prey for the aerial predators. Even the mighty crab Dunk was unable to resist more than four passes of Drogon and its two smaller siblings before being devoured by dragonflame. The fall of the crab was welcomed by an odour of roasted crustacean and a shockwave making tremble the entire island.

There was however one place where this strategy could have worked: at the top of the Dragonmount. The Red Priests fell in droves against the ice blade of the Other leader, their tiredness and their reduced numbers making defeat unavoidable. But here too, the Others were to be thwarted. Lightbringer had been reforged, a corona of fire surrounding it, the blade being skimmed through by thousands of fire tendrils. And Red Priest Sorio, last man standing among the burning corpses brandished it against the pale being.

For an instant, the being many believed to be a magical representation of the Others did or said nothing. Finally, he turned away before vanishing in a rain of ice crystals. Reliable witnesses confirmed it happened roughly at the moment of the crab destruction, and thus the hypothesis of this abomination not being a 'real' White Walker rose in importance.

This moment of defiance cost the Braavosi R'hllorite dearly, though. Sorio was not Azor Ahai, had never thought he would have to endorse the role, and had paid the price in consequence. When his last living subordinates arrived, the vigorous forty-year old man had the appearance of a centenary graybeard.

"Bring the sword to Azor Ahai." Were his last words before the courageous Braavosi expired.

The Second Battle of Dragonstone was over. The winter winds ceased, the ice collapsed (fortunately all the Targaryen army had by now landed on the island) and the casualties could be accounted. They made for grim reading. Three-fourth of the Braavosi garrison had died, and while the Targaryen reinforcements had been engaged in the late, approximately six hundred had perished, the price of their inexperience on unfamiliar terrain, opponents they most ignored everything about and a rather haphazard structure of command.

But humanity had triumphed at Dragonstone. And as Lightbringer was carried in front of Queen Daenerys Targaryen, many thought it was going to be enough for a new era to begin. The future would prove them right, but perhaps not in the way they thought...


	80. Battle for White Harbor

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the North, White Harbor, King Stannis or Roose Bolton. Never mind the Night's Queen.

raw666: Rebuild the breach in the Wall, might be feasible. Restoring the magical protections...maybe not. The cost in blood and lives would be huge.

The Eastern Others of fire are the antithesis of the Others the North is currently fighting. They would assault each other if they were in contact.

X59: The Unsullied and the rest of the Targaryen forces attacking Dragonstone reacted as well as could be expected in these circumstances. Very badly. The discipline of the ranks held thanks to the Unsullied, but the common Freedmen did not take seriously they were going to fight the dead, and their commanders had not thought to fight a major battle so soon against the Others. Fortunately, Daenerys toasted with her dragons most of the enemies, which diminished greatly the difficulty of the battle.

Paul: Oh, the Freys are coming northwards. Their entry, among many others, is going to be a remarked one.

The Red Priests are going to survive this story, don't worry. The men and women who died at Dragonstone were only a slim proportion of the Braavosi members, a powerful one but their effectives are far from extinction. And there are other branches in Lys, Tyrosh, Myr, Pentos...

Takrak is a new character I invented for this chapter, one of the new squires Ser Barristan Selmy trained.

The 5000 men of Daenerys are just the first wave, the number of soldiers the ships available could transport to such a short a notice. There are more coming, however a considerable detachment will stay at Pentos to be sure they have a place to withdraw in case things turn badly.

The Alagoano: The Braavosi have only one word...and a dragon makes an excellent guard/shareholder for your vaults, don't you think?

skipper 1337: Oh, the inspiration for this chapter may have been inspired from a mix of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings...

The crystals are a natural mineral from the Lands of Winter, extracted by wights (because the Others don't feel like mining) and then imbued with their ice magic, making them relays of power.

Daenerys has arrived in winter gear, she finally realised wearing such light clothes is not good when it is winter in Westeros (grin). Ser Barristan is doing what he can to command the armies of his Queen, but he's only one man in a sea of inexperienced commanders. The Unsullied and the rest of the knights he formed are dangerous fighters, but they tend to follow their Queen where she goes and damn the tactics when that happens...

Dragonglass was not so short in supply, the problem was that most of the obsidian was stored in the harbour, and from the start of the battle the wights took control of it. No one obviously had anticipated they were going to fight a battle when there was no enemy in sight...

nappus: The problem with your theory is that the Valyrians as a civilisation only came much later. So Lightbringer was a magical sword, but certainly not a Valyrian one...but still it could happen in the books, I do not pretend knowing everything GRRM set on.

As for the fantasy, I plead guilty with attenuating circumstances. Westeros is really interesting, but how GRRM handles the magic and the bestiary which goes with it is sometimes not to my taste.

QueenAryaI: You may be right (or not, who knows GRRM has planned), but I don't intend to go this way in my story. I agree Dawn is different from other swords, as sharp as Valyrian steel but no sign of being forged by this culture. I may develop an explanation for it before the end of the Long Night...

Guest: That would mean Gendry, Mya Stone or Eric Storm. None of the others illegitimate children have survived the preliminaries stages of the conflict, Cersei killed them all as canon. They have the 'king's blood' sure, but they lack other characteristics...

ultraclosetfan: Most of the armies right now are supplied by food which has been stored the years of the Long Summer. Bread, livestock, vegetables... for the moment the fact that unlike in canon the North did not fall to ruin and civil war has helped hugely. Braavos and Pentos are also supplying tons of food from their lands, which are not completely under the thaw of winter. The situation is less good in the South, where obviously the preparations have been completely disrupted by the war.

melubarv: Prophecies are notoriously known to be fickle, and Daenerys part to play is even more nebulous...it is easy to misinterpret everything.

Eduard Kassel: The Braavosi have already turned Dragonstone to Daenerys, they just need to make it official now. King's Landing is indeed one of her next possible destinations, though there are many others.

The Nissa Nissa price remains to pay. The cost is promising to be terrible, that's all I'm going to say.

No one will dare threaten a shareholder-dragon (ecstatic grin). No, no one!

So much of ruins...I realise I have made a lot of damage to the cities of Westeros to this story. Oh, well, let's continue. Now, we go for White Harbor, the next destination of Daenerys Targaryen will have to wait for a little bit...

 **Battle for White Harbor**

 **The Last Alliance Part II**

 _"Fight me! Fight me!"_ Last words of Ser Loras Tyrell, 301AC.

 _"I don't know what effect they will have on the enemy, but by the New Gods I really don't want to see these men to my side."_ Ser Justin Massey on the army's vanguard, 301AC.

 _"This is a disappointment."_ King Stannis Baratheon, 301AC.

 _"The Others can learn."_ Lord Roose Bolton, 301AC.

The Neck. The terrible and infamous swamp which had guarded the North from the Andals invasion during centuries. For King Stannis Baratheon, this natural obstacle was perhaps the greatest hurdle his army had to face to go to the relief of the North, savagely attacked by the White Walkers and their wights. It would have been sheer madness to go in this swamp unprepared and with a gigantic army all at once, thus the eldest Baratheon alive had decided to divide his forces into several detachments.

From an advance force to the rear guard, the forty thousand men of the Reach, Dorne, the Stormlands, the Crownlands, the North and the Riverlands were going on in fifteen formations. Each would be half a day of travel from each other, able to reinforce rapidly should they come under attack of the Great Enemy. Persistent rumours in the ranks indicated the vanguard consisted of the troops King Stannis, Lord Roose Bolton and the other senior allied commanders judged entirely expendable.

The rumours were most likely entirely true, given the correspondence and other evidence available to us today. Of the two thousand men chosen for such a prestigious and risky endeavour, half of the numbers had been drawn from the Reach contingent, with Ser Loras Tyrell and Lord Mark Mullendore in command. The Knight of Flowers was more than a hindrance by this point, constantly criticising every decision taken or not ordered, sapping the moral of the troops, spreading nasty rumours on his new brother-in-law, clearly having not appreciated the marriage of his sister Margaery to King Stannis. Tactics and strategy, as well as bravery and honour were questioned by a Southern knight whose only military prowess had been to charge headlong in an obvious trap, murder two of his sworn brother of the Rainbow Guard and pass the length of the Eight Kings War in the dungeons of Storm's End. Lord Mark Mullendore was not more brilliant. Originally the Heir to the Uplands lordship when the hostilities started, Ser Mark had been elevated to his current title after his father died on the Field of Poison, and managed to lead five hundred of his own men to their doom in the Death of Kings in an idiotic stand against Dreadwing while he himself survived with minor burns. The new Mullendore lord did not lack courage, but his skills and conception of fighting were the epitome of Southern chivalry, which meant they had no place against the White Walkers. And then there was Lord Horas Redwyne.

Following the death of his father Lord Paxter at the Battle of the Arbor and his twin Hobber in the Battle of the Four Armies, Lord Horas Redwyne had grown extremely bitter and enraged for the weakest slights against his persona or his reputation. The young man, who had been formerly nicknamed "Ser Horror" in 298AC, was now a tyrant with the men of his own House sent northwards and there were persistent talks in the camps at night Lord Horas had abandoned the battlefield immediately when King Euron Greyjoy attacked on that fateful day. This would have already been bad in terms of leadership, but Ser Brynden Tully and Lord Stevron Frey had added even more questionable choices in this group.

Ser Ronald 'the Bad' Vance, heir to Atranta, would have already raised many eyebrows. The young Riverlands knight had earned his nickname not once but several times in the war against the Lannisters and the Baratheons, leading cavalry charges on positions the infantry had fortified, and letting his men and his younger brother Ellery perish in the inferno of King's Landing due to a contestable decision of engaging Buckler troops in Fleabottom. To add more spice to this very copious meal, Lord William Mooton, the former master of Maidenpool was present, now a disgraced man without lands to his name, known to be a coward and disdaining his obligations to protect his lands. A few sellswords having survived the Westerlands campaigns and a large Frey contingent having erred on the side of bungling things and them being commanded by the Heir to the Twins Ser Ryman Frey was simply the fruit on the wedding cake. Men like Rhaegar Frey, Hosteen Frey, Symond Frey and Raymund Frey had been noted to be fervent antagonists in the background of not only King Stannis Baratheon, but also Lord Roose Bolton and the Tullys in their march to the North.

As a result, the progress of the vanguard in the Neck was a disaster. King Stannis Baratheon and his main commanders had established an impressive discipline in the Last Alliance army, helped by the efforts of Ser Brynden Tully and Lord Jason Mallister who were now respectively in charge of the logistics on the west and east side of the Green Fork. The 38 000 men of the main force would suffer less than one hundred and fifty men dead of all causes (swamp fevers, diseases of all kind, frostbites and heart strokes being the principal factors) from the Twins to Moat Cailin. It was the example of what to do, well-helped it had to be admitted by the precious advices of the crannogmen and the Northern lords having done the same travel in the other direction.

The group of men under Ser Ryman Frey had decided to consider these advantages not worth their time and paid dearly for it. The Neck in spite of the coldest winter in many generations had uncountable quicksand, thousands of poisonous flowers, large snakes with a venom acting so rapidly the man was dead in less than a turn of hourglass and of course the lizard-lions, large reptiles whose largest members could swallow a mature stag for lunch. When the first man saw the towers of Moat Cailin, the vanguard had one quarter of its effectives down, dead or so ill the interested wished they could be. Rhaegar Frey had been partially eaten by an extremely long swamp snake. Lord William Mooton had disappeared in the fog when a cloud of insects surrounded him, and no one had ever seen him since. Lord Ryman has taken a swamp fever leaving him with the look of an inflated pustule. And Ser Loras Tyrell was himself forced to travel in a wheelhouse, being ill to a point he passed most of his time vomiting and doing other activities this author will not mention here.

The rest of the one thousand and five hundred leadership suffered from diseases, loss of moral and various ailments. But to the consternation of the small force and the refugee stationed at Moat Cailin, the Southern vanguard did not relent and with a stubbornness an Ironborn would have admired, pressed on the road to White Harbor. Against the orders of their superiors, who had made clear the army was to be mustered one day north of the ancestral fortress guarding the Neck.

To be fair, the men now unofficially under Ser Hosteen Frey's orders (all the other commanders being too ill or didn't want the job) had not that many options. Moat Cailin had not a large supply of medicinal herbs and not a single maester to cure them from the wounds and various diseases they had caught in the Neck or before. Going to White Harbor was the best choice in an ocean of bad ones, no matter it violated at least three scores of orders from a King and their liege lords.

What the devastated vanguard had no clue about, alas, was where the Others were. The defenders of Moat Cailin had received enough mounted messengers to know the White Walkers were coming south, but with Winterfell holding firmly, the exact path of the Night's Queen and her considerable army was not known at the moment they departed. If Ser Mark Mullendore and his fellow co-commanders had had a clue, they would have stayed at Moat Cailin or hurried their pace to find refuge in the Manderly city. But they didn't and their fate was sealed.

Altogether, the bad logistics, the incredibly ridiculous leadership and the falling health of the troops would have made a boost in speed an unlikely proposition. Ser Symond Frey died from infected wounds three days after having left Moat Cailin, and several common men-at-arms fell and never stood up from the same issue. The ordeal was terrible, and it was a plague-ridden and defeated cordon of soldiers and knights who arrived in sight of White Harbor. Only to realise they were starting to throw themselves in the jaws of the dragon, and it was unfortunately not a metaphoric expression. The dark clouds and the freezing winds of winter had killed most of the visibility, but the Night's Queen perched on her splendid ice dragon and the thousands of Others nearing White Harbor, along with the tens of thousands wights, could not be missed except by a blind man. The armies of death had arrived for the carnage.

Lord Wyman Manderly, master of White Harbor and by virtue of seniority, commander of the army stationed behind the walls of White Harbor, reacted promptly and efficiently. Meera Reed and a dozen of audacious cavalrymen sallied out of the gates and tried to reorganise the battered Southerners in a cohesive manner long enough for them to find refuge in the Northern city. Too bad for the living, the Others commanders disagreed and ordered close to ten thousand wights to charge, proof they were not thinking as rationally as a human general. The Riverlanders and the Reach men were tired to the point their contribution to the fight would have been negligible, their illnesses could have brought an epidemic at the worst moment inside the Manderly stronghold, and generally in winter more men meant less food per person. But for the survivors of the Neck, this was a spectacle of nightmare. Many of these young men of the nobility had not listened the news coming from the Wall except to qualify them of far-fetched tales. A large majority had not fared 'well' facing human opponents. Now the enemy in front of them could not be called human, indeed it could not be called living at all.

The remnants of discipline and military formations existing disappeared instantly. Everywhere, men ran for their lives, some trying to reach White Harbor, while others rushed towards Moat Cailin and small groups rushed in every direction giving the illusion of safety. Meera Reed and her subordinates abandoned on the spot their efforts and galloped back to the gates.

The Reed Heiress was the last one to enter the home of Lord Wyman Manderly with a very reduced advance on the first wight before the massive doors were closed in a loud clang and the first abominations fruitlessly tried to break the iron covering them. Lord Mark Mullendore and Ser Ronald 'the Bad' Vance with close to three hundred men had found refuge in the Manderly courtyards. That was all. Three hundred out of a thousand and five hundred. Ser Hosteen Frey was retreating south-west with one hundred men, but the rest were outside...being truly slaughtered by the wights.

The Night's Queen didn't participate in this one-sided battle. No Others drew a sword to massacre a human. At no moment an ice spider closed the distance to be in range of the siege engines and bows of White Harbor's defenders. There was no need. Compared to the heroic combats of the Wall, the Last Hearth, Bear Island or Widow's Watch, the action in front of White Harbor was truly pitiful.

Ser Ryman and Raymund Frey attempts to flee southwards were stopped by dozen of arrows, their slow speed and their corpulent bodies making them easy picking for the undead archers. Lord Horas Redwyne brayed a warcry and charged a hundred wights with half a dozen cavalrymen behind him, with a far too predictable end, thrown off his horse and mutilated beyond recognition. The warriors who had always lived during summer were now picked one by one by the embrace of the cold, and finally there was only one man alive where initially several hundred men were marching. Loras Tyrell, unlike the rest of the vanguard, had not been able to fight or flee, being way too weakened to don his armour or raise a weapon for a moment of seconds. The third son of the defunct Mace Tyrell, once upon a time nicknamed the Knight of Flowers, was dragged before the Night's Queen screaming for his sword. Forced to bend the knee by a White Walker, Ser Loras demanded a duel with the leader of the ice army. He was humiliatingly rebuffed. "I only fight worthy opponents" said the Night's Queen in a frozen voice echoing magically across the windy plains of the North, perhaps referring to the Tyrell knight effeminate appearance, his illness or another indication Ser Loras was not worth her time. And a rapid strike of an ice blade decapitated the brother of Lord Willas.

The matter of the southern army eliminated from the actual rapport of force, the Others did not waste any time. Their non-optimal use of scouts had not allowed the soldiers born in the Lands of Always Winter to see where the reinforcement human armies were located, but the Others knew they existed. The Second Battle of Dragonstone and the vanguard destruction had at least proved that. A long siege wasn't an option. House Manderly, like all the other major Northern Houses, had stocked huge quantities of food for the coming winter and the Night's Queen had not years to weaken the resistance of Lord Wyman and his sworn swords. The assault was to begin. Immediately.

In practise, it revealed a more complicated problem that the White Walkers had anticipated. This was the first Other assault ever on White Harbor, the city being 'only' a thousand years old, but between pirates, sellswords, Essossi, slavers, Valemen and Sistermen (one category didn't forbidding another), it had a lot of experience on the 'living' threats and solid walls to repulse them. Freezing the White Knife River and the surrounding lands was making the storming a bit easier, but not so much. The Manderly had had plenty of time and manpower available between the great appearance of the Others at Hardhome and now to fortify their city, train and muster their levies, gather obsidian weapons and evacuate in security their smallfolk.

Three times the wights charged on the first day. Three times they took so many projectiles that by the end, some were looking like the targets of an archer training ground. After practise. The corpses animated by the ice sorcery burnt. Few of the dead servants managed to reach the top of the ramparts. None lasted there, being hurled back in the multitude of the shredded horde. The walls received the assault like they endured the elements for hundreds of years: without flinching. Hours succeeded to hours, day after day passed. The Others continued to launch assault from the north, east, west and two times on the frozen Bite. Dead birds flew over the city, croaking and shrieking, disrupting the sleep of all the men, women and children besieged.

On the fifth day, more important cohorts of wights arrived, and with them something the Manderly and the rest of the Westerosi soldiers particularly feared: siege engines. In this case, two dozens of light catapults, along with four massive trebuchets so big they needed a crawling mass of wights to push and dead mammoths to provide the traction. The sixth day saw them in action for the first time, and against this weapon no Southern or Northern knight had any idea how to answer. The light catapults were bad, sending a substance looking like wildfire but in cold version and with blue flames. The trebuchets were something several magnitude worse. First, they passed well over the ramparts and the towers, having more amplitude and range than the smaller constructions. Secondly, the substance was imbued in massive rocks, meaning everywhere they landed, the damage was considerable. In fact, it was better to pray not to be where the projectile crashed. Really. The wounds caused by it condemned any human wounded in such a manner to a particular atrocious demise.

In the meanwhile, the wights had not ceased their relentless assault on the outer part of the fortifications. Far from declining, it intensified truly. The giants' wights were finally coming from the frontlines. Thousands of new dead risen from the Hornwood, Woolfield, Manderly, Bolton and Flint lands that hadn't been destroyed in time or being in tombs so old humanity had forgotten the very memory of them. Dead boars and dead bears to strike the three gates of White Harbor with their animal robustness. A score of dead seals and fishes to occupy the warships stationed south of the Northern city.

The men sworn to Lord Wyman Manderly did all they could to stem the dark waves, but their resistance was failing. A massive blizzard was unleashing its cold winds and the ice, diminishing the warmth and the number of fires. The enemy came in relentless waves, and few Others or other elite units were coming to test the vigour of the archers and the infantry manning the portcullis and the ballista. Each day saw more than fifty warriors fall, a bleeding nothing, not the jovial Master of House Manderly or the challenging songs of the bards could slow down. And the common soldier wondered where the reinforcements were.

The short answer was: they're coming. With a large 'but'. There had been, like in many past and future military operations, a lot of issues delaying the arrival of King Stannis Baratheon and King Robb Stark. First obstacle was of course the general lack of experience of human commanders to wage a war in freezing temperatures. Lady Barbrey Dustin lamentable wartime preparations had slowed down the announced counterattack. Then there had been the need to coordinate between two Kings separated by hundreds of leagues, in a hostile territory where each move could alert hundreds of livid blue eyes a new human had 'volunteered' to serve in the wight armies.

Finally, on the twentieth day of the siege, the horns of the Stormlands, Dorne, the North, the Reach, the Crownlands and the Riverlands sounded in unity. From their positions on the walls and the highest ground of White Harbor, thousands of men cheered as formidable forces came out of the wilderness and charged the army of the Long Night. The wights of the outer formation were cut like grass. The gathered soldiers of the former Seven Kingdoms had the initiative, and the ice machinery was facing the wrong direction to be of any use. This time, the Others were going to suffer a defeat, a certainty more evident than ever due to the White Walkers having spent relentlessly their dead resources to overwhelm White Harbor. Or were they?

The skill of the Night's Queen in strategy has long since been a debate among all the persons interested by this gloomy period, but the commander of the Others, mounted on her large dragon, could perfectly tell engaging all her reserves here and there was more likely to end in her defeat than not. Drawing her sword and shouting a command in an unknown language, the beautiful and inhuman being had decided of a new course of action. All the White Walkers instantly retreated to the south-east, followed by thousands of the non-human wights. The human corpses, thousands of them, charged the human armies leagued against them.

No one, not King Stannis Baratheon, not King Robb Stark, nor any of their lords, had anticipated such a thing. The Others had in general a total insensitivity to their own losses, and retreating in the White Walkers language had been widely believed to not exist. But it had happened. By the time the Northerners and the Southerners wiped out the twenty thousand wights left behind and the Manderly defenders led by Meera Reed sallied out, burning the trebuchets which had unleashed untold amount of ravage against the Northern city, the core of the Others army had escaped. The Second Long Night was not over. While no one realised it at the time, a new episode in this legendary conflict had just begun.


	81. A Dream of Spring

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the North, the Others or Bear Island.

raw666: Nice proposition of quote. Will see if I can place it somewhere in a modified fashion.

To be fair, a good part of the Reach forces are capable warriors. The problem, as too often, is in the leadership, which cost them plenty because the mistakes here translate in hundreds or thousands of dead persons.

X59: Thanks! Yes, by the way things were going, everyone on the human side was growing to believe the Others were getting predictable. Now, not so much...

Paul: I'm flattered by all your reviews, but let's try to keep them to a reasonable number, shall we?

I didn't mention too many of the main commanders of White Harbor, because while they did excellent jobs, this siege was not the kind of fighting where legends are made. It was long, it was gruelling, and they could do nothing against the trebuchets.

Fixed things for Ellery Vance, thanks.

On the subjects of the Baratheon bastards: while it was not said in the books or in the shows, Cersei complete elimination of Robert's bastard is a near certainty. First, because she had the names and the appearances of every woman her husband bedded. Secondly because she was ready to murder a baby girl. Every one of the bastards born from prostitutes and other less reputable professions was a danger and a minor proof of her infidelity. Varys or no Varys, Cersei had to be informed of every bastard, and they had to die quickly when the civil war began. Edric Storm was protected at Storm's End. So was Mya Stone at the Eyrie. Gendry survived due to other factors. But the rest of them are undoubtedly dead and buried. Just shows how ruthless the Lannister can be when they are in the wrong and desperate.

Bear Island will be talked about in this chapter, for the Vale it's going to be four or five more chapters I think.

I can say without spoiling anything that Lord Roose Bolton is not a servant of the Others in my story. A pragmatic, amoral lord, willing to ruthlessly eliminate his opponents if the occasion comes? Yes. Serving the Others? No. Giving the ice beings regard every human as potential resources to expand their wight armies, such a deal would be not only stupid but also terribly short-sighted. And the Head of House Bolton is anything but that.

The Thenns. Jarl's group died against the walls of Castle Black. Individuals survived here and there, the civilians (women and children) at Winterfell, other warriors like Sigorn and a few others dispersed in the Northern army. But they have been crippled and won't play a major role anymore in the waging of the war.

Ramsay Snow was so dangerous it was better if he died early, although the point of him being vilified to his just measure would have been good.

Quotes from Quentyn Martell are going to be written. Grey Worm...him I am not sure at all.

I have at the very minimum at least thirty chapters planned, and I know how I will end the story. The War against the Others will not last that long, but there will be remnants to deal with everywhere and given the armies speed in winter, it's going to take quite time.

Matt Quinn: Nice formulation. Loras last moments were indeed not glorious at all.

Eduard Kassel: Loras will be something in between the two options you propose. A good figure, cut short while he was still terribly young and without much military experience (the same could be said happening to him in the books), but in the drawbacks someone who did not support the Last Alliance, not exactly endearing because the fate of humanity is at stake.

The Frey tree has been a bit diminished, but they have still enough members to make five or six large Houses. With spare.

As for Bran, his fate will be eventually revealed...but not soon. And of course Azor Ahai will remain unknown until the big reveal (grin).

 **A Dream of Spring**

 **The Battle of the North Part IV**

" _Hold your positions! Here we stand!_ " Last words of Lady Maege Mormont, 301AC.

" _House Mormont will never forget this day_." Alysanne Mormont, 301AC.

" _Do not let the White Walkers recover. Kill them all_." King Stannis Baratheon, 301AC.

" _It is going to be difficult to kill them now. Where is spring when you need it_?" Ser Justin Massey, 301AC.

" _Damn the ice dragons..._ " Ser Hosteen Frey, 301AC.

Close to a fortnight after the Second Battle of Dragonstone, the improbable alliance between the forces of King Stannis Baratheon and King Robb Stark had just handled the Others a second major defeat, sending them reeling without the forces of Winter having accomplished any of their objectives. There was little doubt in anyone's mind the Night's Queen and the forces of the Long Night had wanted to make the Manderly city a new graveyard to rebuild their depleted wights' armies, a plan which would have had devastating consequences on the course of this war if it had succeeded.

Thanks to the heroic efforts of thousands of humans it had not happened. North, east and west around White Harbor, over fifty thousand warriors had been mustered, with name as prestigious Lord Jon 'Greatjon' Umber, Ser Donnel Swann, Lord Jason Mallister or Lord Anders Yronwood being present, along hundreds of others. It was a time of triumph and glory, and yet there were hints of regret in the ranks. After all, no matter how formidable this army was, the Kingdom of Westeros under King Baratheon I would have been able easily to muster twice that many men before the War of the Eight Kings began. With spare. In fact King Renly I Baratheon had been able to lead more men than this force before going to his doom at Storm's End. That now this army was divided between two crowns was not exactly encouraging.

Lord Wyman Manderly introducing himself to his reinforcements did not change this perception of the events. The Lord of White Harbor was the picture itself of courtesy and joy in public, but admitted to the senior commanders in private the war had taken a hard toll on his lands, and that the bloodshed had now to be brought to its conclusion at the earliest opportunity. White Harbor had taken over five thousand casualties, most of them fatal, in fifteen days of siege, and while the granaries and the larders were still at satisfying levels, attempting to supply the army camping outside, plus the refugee who had added themselves the normal population, would drain the food reserves at an astonishing rate. There were also the internal tensions to deal with. While everyone from the greatest lords to the poorest army's recruit understood what was at stake, the basic reality was that except the Iron Islands and the Westerlands, every kingdom of Westeros was represented. Men who had joyously gutted each other were coping with the facts they had to cooperate with their former enemies. Knowing pertinently the old grievances had not disappeared, the fate of Loras Tyrell and the vanguard was evidence enough of that.

On the one hand, Lord Horas Redwyne and the main lords and knights had disregarded their orders and managed to botch the plan of their relatives to guard them from any fatal harm. On the other hand, no one could put out of his mind the fact King Stannis had granted Ser Loras the sword Black Dawn when he had made the demand, and the rumour of the Valyrian sword being cursed had justified itself, the Knight of Flowers being struck down by disease and beheaded before the Night's Queen days after. That the two Frey soldiers under Ser Hosteen having saved the blade perished in the retreat of the battlefield from frostbites discouraged every fighter to make the same demand.

The meeting was nonetheless viewed as a moment of legend by the future historians and maesters, it being the first talks between the two surviving monarchs of the Westerosi War of the Eight Kings, King Stannis Baratheon and King Robb Stark. It was here that Westeros was officially divided into two large realms, though of course the exact frontiers and the numbers of kingdoms emerging at the end of the Second Long Night would be much larger than originally envisioned (the arrival of Queen Daenerys Targaryen at Dragonstone had not reached the North for example). It was here that the Last Alliance was officially created: hundreds of lords, knights, men-at-arms, women and children swore on their very lives and their Faith that as long as they had a breath of life in them, they would continue the fight against the Others. Promises were made in front of the Manderly thousand-years old weirwood tree. Oaths were exchanged. The sword Black Dawn was returned to Stark hands, Lord Devan Seaworth taking Red Rain for his courage and his valiant deeds on the battlefield. Should Brandon Stark, King Robb's cadet brother reappear alive, the possibility of a royal marriage with Princess Shireen was thought about (but we know of course what happened of this plan). A few renowned knights having been received lands in the Crownlands would marry Stormlands ladies. The North and the South also agreed to meet in order to decide the attitude to adopt towards Essos (with of course Braavos the prime subject of the conversation due to the Iron bank and the Sealord interventionism in Westerosi affairs). The respite did not last more than a couple of days, there was a Night's Queen to slay and White Walkers to pursue. Ranks upon ranks of soldiers formed, and the pursuit to catch the Winter enemies was renewed.

But the Others were not entirely discouraged on the other fronts. From the Frozen Shore, a new White Walker army regrouped and launched a terrifying assault on Bear Island, initiating the Third Battle of the name. This time, the Others tactics traduced well their desperation: all their ice arsenal was unleashed at the Mormont and their allies. Hundreds of bird wights. Dead giants. Animals of all fangs and claws. Endless cohorts of skeletons. The dead fishes seen for the first time at the Second Battle of Dragonstone appeared on the Bay of Seals, as did a massive group of ice wyverns. The sea froze over for six large paths, which were added to several impressive icebergs touching Bear Island at the same moment. For the humans who had the dubious honour to assist to this demonstration of magic and darkness, it was like a sea of darkness had covered the world, the only sources of light being the torches they carried and the blue lights animating the corpses the Others pushed before them to soak up the fire and the steel of the defenders.

Lady Maege Mormont and Commander Blane did not make the least effort of defending the shore this time. Unlike the First and the Second Battle fought there, meeting such a nightmarish army on open ground would have been futile and outright stupid. The victorious army of White Harbor could perhaps have handled such a threat on their own. The defenders of Bear Island had not the numbers to oppose this.

In the middle of this darkness, there were still motives of satisfaction. Making the stand at Bear Island and not at Deepwood Motte, Ironrath or elsewhere had been the correct choice. Should those forces had been able to land unopposed on the western coast and spread in the Wolfswood, the Northerners would have passed the next century to track the undead to the last, assuming the enemies in question didn't try to unite with the Others besieging Winterfell or assaulting more vulnerable positions like Torrhen's Square or Barrowton.

But now the enemy was there and it had to be stopped. At any cost. Failure would result in the same story happening, only with the men and women of Bear Island joining the ranks of the wights. The onslaught came like a warhammer. The Others had positioned half a dozen giants in their vanguard followed by shadowcats, snow lions and felines known for their swiftness and agility. Behind them, the wights came, racing with a lack of self-preservation for their dead existence the humans had become so familiar with. The woods surrounding Mormont Hall had been built to slow down any enemy, but this time was not the case. While skirmishers slew down hundreds of enemies with one of the last member of the Night's' Watch, 'Squire' Dalbridge, claiming over a hundred kills with his arrows in the cumulated kills of the three battles, nothing seemed to stop the abominations of the Long Night.

The wights came like a torrent of malevolence on the fortifications preceded by the ice breath of the wyverns and the scream of the northern winds. And then they slammed in the walls of Mormont Keep. The series of trenches dug in haste after the fall of the Wall were soon covered of dead, but it did not stopped the assault and the outer earthen palisade, weakened during the Second Battle, collapsed under the weight of uncountable bodies. The infamous gate of House Mormont, representing a woman with a suckling babe in one arm and a battleaxe in the other, disappeared in an ocean of fury and monsters. The corpses started to kick and push the wooden walls of the keep, in pure loss as it had been built with centuries-old logs, but for how long?

Such a suicidal strategy however had cost the Winter army dearly. Following a predictable path and with each trap or defence destroyed by throwing more resources at it, the butcher bill for the White Walkers was horrendous even by the Others insane standards. From the top of the Keep, two hundred archers threw a rain of flame arrows and everything they had which had been discovered to murder their inhuman opponents. If the White Walkers leadership had taken a few seconds to evaluate their actions or had possessed the empathy of a human general, they would have stopped the attack here and there. Of course, a human commander in all likelihood would have seen his troops mutiny or rout by this point, but the opportunity to save the core forces of this army existed and could have been executed.

The Others did not seize it, giving the order to their troops to charge again with improvised ladders and everything in wood and transportable they had put their dead hands on since their landing. And the massacre continued. While the means taken to pass the last Mormont defences started to reap their toll on the human soldiers, the wights were packed in a very narrow amount of space and no warrior could miss such easy targets.

To make matters worse, House Mormont had emplaced several rocks on the high ground right and left of their keep. Rocks which the biggest trebuchet would have had no chance to project, their weight and size were more in the categories of elephants than normal siege ammunition. Once signal was given, men and women who had stayed hidden pushed the wooden levers and the rocks raced down the slopes at a very respectable speed. Wights usually had to be dismembered and burnt to be totally ridden of. But the ones which were crushed under these rocks would never rise again, being more paste than solid. Everywhere these deadly instruments of destruction had passed, a bloody trail was now present.

Despite this, despite the fire and the steel, the stones, the obsidian and the pikes, the arrows and the tenacity of the Mormont warriors, the assault did not relent. The Others had a mountain of unanimated corpses rather than an undead army by that point, with some of their species members in the pile for good measure, but the hate they felt for humanity overrode everything. That the ice wyverns had fallen from the sky. That most of the giants they had brought were burning in the trenches where they had found their second death. That over two-thirds of their forces were gone, and as a consequence they would be unable to exploit fully their victory, assuming they won at all in the middle of this massacre.

The remaining ice monsters charged and with them their last reserves were rushed in the battle, trying to reach the gates of Mormont Keep before the human archers annihilated them. The White Walkers nearly did not make it, if not for a wight of a mammoth partially in flames which managed to break through the wooden protections in a last thrust before collapsing. The Others attacked the breach, confident the slaughter was about to become more in their favour. It didn't.

The abominations coming from the Lands of Always Winter had badly analysed their strength and weaknesses. While it was true a single White Walker is a fearsome opponent and practically invincible on one-on-one duel, the ice warriors were always preceded by thousands of wights and Beyond-the-Wall they had fought human opponents who had not the means to seriously wound or kill them. In the Hall of Mormont Keep, there were still some daggers and arrowheads of obsidians, and the men and women waiting there had kept their discipline.

The melee was horrible...and terribly short-lived. The Others had lost too many of their own in this last mad charge, and barely five minutes were necessary to kill them all. But the butchery was horrific beyond words. For each White Walker which managed to pass the gates, five to eight defenders went down. The list was dramatic and long. 'Squire' Dalbridge. Wull 'the Five Hundred'. Torr 'the Wyvern-Slayer'. Edd 'the Ice Killer'. And Lady Maege Mormont.

The Head of House Mormont had been a true storm of destruction as fighting raged, killing it was said over six hundred enemies by herself before taking with her one of the most powerful Others in death. It was the fall of a Great Lady, and heads of the Bear House still mourn to this day the moment of her fall. But Lady Maege's death was not in vain.

The death of the Last White Walker in Mormont Keep from a dagger in the eye was the signal of the rout. The mere hundreds of wights left became unresponsive or fell apart. Half a dozen Others having not participated in the battle ran away like Hell was on their ice heels.

The Third Battle of Bear Island was over. Never would the dreaded White Walkers try again to take the island where so many had found their annihilation, making it a place of terror and dread for the Night's Queen and her lackeys. Fortunately, because the Mormont and their allies were not that much better, with over half the soldiers dead and a quarter which were holding to life with painful difficulties. The Night's Watch on Bear Island was now reduced to the only person of Commander Blane. And of the Free Folk and the rest of the northern contingents, they had been painfully hammered, unable to form for offensives for months, if not years without proper reinforcements. The command of the survivors fell to Robett Glover, Master of Deepwood Motte, while Alysanne Mormont, Lady Maege's cadet daughter, became acting-castellan of Mormont Keep until her eldest sister Dacey came back from Winterfell.

A lot of battles happened like this thorough the North in these dark days. Some ended in human victories, the survivors emerging from the mountains, the hills and the forests at the end of the war to share what they had endured. But many other locations were silenced, their fate a sad and forgotten one. The avalanches of dead warriors did not come anymore, but hundreds of dead roaming the endless Northern plains were more than enough to provoke torment and ruin. And as long as the main army of the Others was on the field, this tragic situation would continue. Northerners fought in the Western Peaks. They bled in the Lonely Hills, the Wolfswood, the Old and New Gifts. Humanity resisted everywhere.

But east of White Harbor, the turn taken by the events was proving defiance was not enough. Despite the bravery of Ser Hosteen Frey and the new vanguard formed to intercept the Others (many Reach and Riverlands soldiers had been ready to do anything to defend their honour after White Harbor), catching up with the Night's Queen had really not been feasible. Hundreds of wights had been sacrificed to give hours to the White Walkers. At each occasion the mass of White Walkers had been vulnerable, the two ice dragons had risen to unleash an apocalypse of frost, killing scores of soldiers in all impunity. Ser Ronald 'the Bad' Vance died in such a skirmish with many others courageous cavalrymen. And the losses could not look good no matter how a strategist looked at them. Each moment of respite allowed the Others to reanimate more wights or cast snow storms to delay the human army, and with their push south-east the Night's Queen and her remaining troops embarked on huge icebergs, getting out of reach of the North-Stormlands coalition.

The army of the Others had survived everything humanity could launch at it, and escaped to live another day on their iceberg fleet, an uncommon method of transportation if there ever was one. The Battle of the North was not over. Far from it. But if there was to be a hope of dawn, then the Others would have to utterly destroyed. A thing easier to say than done...


	82. Of Dunes and Brothers

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own House Martell, Sunspear or the desert.

ProCannonFodder: Thanks for the compliment.

raw666: The Others needed three things for their grand invasion. First, a long enough winter, where their powers are multiplied to an incredible degree and their weaknesses to warmth and the sun does not hinder them. The second point was that the defences of the Wall had to be dying, else they would never have passed. The third was that they needed to rebuild their numbers after the huge casualties taken during the First Long Night. There are other reasons, which will be revealed in time and hour...

X59: Yes, the White Walkers have limits and know how to recognise a lost cause. Still, they persisted and sank huge numbers well after any human general would have stopped. The future will tell us whether they were wrong or right...

melubarv: Robb is less than eighteen for sure at this point in the story, so yes, very young. Jon Snow was part of the Northern reinforcements, marching from Ramsgate. Bran has nearly reached the final point of his journey, he has not merged with any tree yet.

Conquering the Lands of Always Winter, no, because it's completely impossible. The Last Alliance has already huge difficulties supplying their forces as it is, they aren't going to lead an invasion in the unknown regions where no human can survive very long. Rebuilding the Wall...we will see.

Paul: I'm planning to give news about Qohor in a late chapter, though they aren't to be a focus for a while. The news of Qarth beating the Dothraki attack was mentioned in the Yi Ti chapter, but I will perhaps recall it at another moment. With their navy destroyed, they have few strategic opportunities at the moment.

Some of the Skagos inhabitants fled with the few ships they had southwards. Several sunk, some survived. The rest died. Yes, the tribes here had a bad reputation. No, they didn't deserve to be exterminating by ice monstrosities. But the White Walkers don't care, and Skagos is always in the frontlines when an invasion arrives from Beyond-the-Wall.

Who knows for Black Dawn, it could be a string of coincidences (roll eyes)... Dolorous Edd is still alive and kicking. The black brothers are good swordsmen generally, but those who have survived until then are (with a few exceptions) veterans of the Watch or at least swore their vows before the War of the Eight Kings exploded. The new recruits who were rushed to the Wall when the Others arrived didn't survive long, their training being cut hellishly short.

Most of the Thenns died fighting (formidable fighters, they don't tend to surrender). Not made a detail honestly of the exact deaths in this party, they weren't exactly a big worry on my part and their importance in the future isn't that great too.

Yes, the death of Merret was why these Freys in particular were so antagonistic. Given that none were having deep familial ties with the defunct knight, there were also other issues, a lot of them far less noble and more concerned with lordship ambitions...

As for the bastards issue, that's fine, everyone is entitled to his own opinion. In the end, it wouldn't change much: Robert didn't legitimise them, and he recognised only Mya and Edric, as a result their claims would be no better than any smallfolk of Westeros.

Eduard Kassel: House Mormont has already a badass reputation before the events of canon started. Now, no one is going to want angering them. It would be insanity at its finest.

Your suggestion for Justin Massey is amusing and in character. Will see what I can do.

Ah, Daenerys. The last Targaryen is going to bring solutions and problems with her when she comes in fire and blood.

The Others and the war they fight are certainly cruel. Opposing them and winning is a guarantee to be a hero. Losing makes sure you go to oblivion.

 **Of Dunes and Brothers**

 **The Dornish Civil War Part I**

" _I'm back_." Quentyn Martell, 301AC.

" _What parts of Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken did my brother not understand?_ " Princess Arianne Martell, 301AC.

" _House Uller will not bow to a boy who has milk instead of fire in his veins._ " Lord Harmen Uller, 301AC.

" _These battles at sea grow easier and easier. What's next?_ " Unknown sailor in the Stormlands fleet, 301AC.

" _We of the Reach have dealt with Dornish before. I propose we adopt a different strategy. Let the scorpions and the vipers murder each other. Once they're dead, we will pick up the pieces_." Queen Margaery Baratheon born Tyrell on the Dornish Civil War, 301AC.

By the standards of Westerosi warfare, the Dornish civil war which had begun in the first days of the year 301AC was at first a surprising bloodless affair. No murders, hundreds of execution, rapes by the scores, destruction of villages and killings of innocents. No assassinations, burnings, hangings and other unpleasantness going hand-to-hand with conflict and power struggle.

Of course, that didn't mean the lords, ladies and the other influential men and women in Dorne lacked the motivation to do so. But they did not have the soldiers it required, nor the funds or the equipment to fight such a campaign. What few hulls Dorne had had to navigate on the seas had been captured, sunk or abandoned in the debacle of the Dornish Sea when the majority of the Golden Company was destroyed by Admiral Davos Seaworth. On the land side, most of the Dornish army had either surrendered after the Doom of Kings and was on its way to the North to fight the nightmarish threat known as the Others or was lying dead across various battlefields in the Marches and the Reach. Each of these losses would have been catastrophic on its own right, especially with the Free Cities in chaos following the acts of Queen Daenerys Targaryen and the private war fought by Myr, Lys and Tyrosh, making the idea of recruiting thousands of sellswords or Unsullied virtually impossible for the time being.

Another issue was that Dorne was already under partial enemy occupation. The forces of King Stannis Baratheon had captured the castles of Wyl under the leadership of Lord Creighton Dondarrion. Kingsgrave and Skyreach had recently fallen to Lord Rolland Caron, a not very surprising development, as both Lord Franklyn Fowler and Lord Dagos Manwoody had perished at Highgarden with their best armsmen. With Lord Edric Dayne of Starfall having bent the knee to the eldest Baratheon, Lord Anders Yronwood submitting after the death of King Aegon VI and Lady Lara Blackmont having followed suit a month later, virtually the entire defence of the Dornish Marches had collapsed in a whimper. High Hermitage was under the control of House Dayne of Starfall again. In the east, the Tor fortress had been captured by Ser Balon Swann in an amphibious assault. From the Torentine to Ghaston Grey, what few troops Storm's End had that could be spared from the survival fight against the White Walkers had taken advantageous positions allowing them to plan for a rapid series of advances should it be necessary or another option was chosen. Knowing King Stannis sense of duty and deep commitment to the laws of the realm, there was little doubt to those in the know the Baratheon king would reinstate Princess Arianne Martell as Lady of Sunspear and Princess of Dorne, but the recent unpopularity of Aegon VI's wife in her home kingdom was troubling to many lord and ladies, including Hand of the King Ser Richard Horpe and Lady Margaery Tyrell.

Against these gains, the men and women supporting the claim of Prince Trystane Martell and his new wife Myrcella Baratheon (a marriage which many remembered having been engineered by the hero Tyrion Lannister during his tenure as Hand of the King, proof that death was not enough to curtail the influence of the legendary dwarf) were definitely weak. House Martell power and influence were notably in decline, and many Houses had outright refused to recognise the third child of Prince Doran Martell seated at Sunspear, the most powerful being Uller, Vaith and Santagar. The rest, led by Houses Allyrion and Gargalen, had sent token words of support, but more material deeds were incredibly slow to come. The only Noble House to manifest its open support of Prince Trystane was House Qorgyle, that said the soldiers of Sandstone were busy patrolling the dunes of their lands against any incursion coming from Dayne, Yronwood or Fowler territory and could not be of great help with the rest of Dorne, diplomatically or militarily. The minor knights and lords owning holding on the northern and eastern coasts maintained their surviving men at home, out of fear the exact fate of the Tor would happen to them too should they answer Sunspear calls. When the hostilities resumed between Trystane and Arianne supporters, the conflict was going to be really on-sided, and not in the youngest favour, the claim of the third child creating an astounding disadvantage.

Things could probably have stayed like this until the end of the Second Long Night or an interval of months until Storm's End, Blackhaven and Nightsong regrouped enough forces to attack again. Perhaps. What no one in Dorne had really expected however, was the return of Quentyn Martell, Doran's second son. After the old Prince's death, knowledge of the young man being sent to Meereen had widely spread at the court of Sunspear, and it was the overwhelming opinion Quentyn Martell had died somewhere between the Broken Arm and Slaver's Bay. In this period of war, cataclysms and horrible weather, it would not have been outside the realm of possibilities. But against the odds, Quentyn Martell survived. Given that the odds included dragons, storms, plagues other diseases and full-scaled battles of a size never seen in the last couple of centuries, it was impressive. Nonetheless, there was little applause to greet the princely arrival to Planky Town.

First, because of his original party of six members, Prince Quentyn and Ser Gerris Drinkwater were the only survivors and could not in all fairness be described to be in good health. Ser Cletus Yronwood, second child of Lord Anders Yronwood, and his cousin Archibald had died in the adventure. The loss of such two prestigious fighters, after so many had gone to war and would never come back, was no cause of rejoicing.

Secondly, the mission was a failure. Quentyn Martell had been sent to Eastern Essos to court, marry and bring back Queen Daenerys Targaryen, but it was evident he had failed: rumours coming from Volantis and other locations had spread the word the Mother of Dragons had not wedded another man since the execution of King Hizdhar. Plus the Targaryen Queen had been seen riding towards Dragonstone. And by the missives and orders the eldest son of the deceased Prince of Dorne was bringing back, it was evident Prince Quentyn had established anything but a good relationship with the last dragonrider. Royal marriage was out of the question. And unless you considered master-servant a good relationship, the gains Dorne would gain by submitting were going to be non-existent.

Thirdly, from the poorest smallfolk to the wealthiest knight, everyone who had a modicum of intelligence knew this arrival was the signal for the open hostilities to start. Even if Prince Quentyn had chosen not to accept Queen Daenerys's orders to rally Dorne to her cause, the basic point was that his younger brother Trystane was behind him in the order of succession to the Princedom. And despite having not a charismatic and flamboyant personality, Quentyn Martell was a knight anointed by the Seven, willing to fight for his rights and the queen he had sworn his allegiance. Although the five hundred Unsullied and approximately two thousand Freedmen at his back undoubtedly helped improve his confidence.

Blood was not long to be shed. None of the newcomers had had a real understanding of the current Dornish political situation, but after half an hour of landing, Prince Quentyn and the Unsullied commander Red Feet had acquired enough information to know things were not going to be peaceful. The landed troops rushed in Planky Town, defeating the minor part of the town's garrison which chose not flee or change sides in the middle of the battle. Bolstered by hundred of his own countrymen, Prince Quentyn raced to Sunspear. This time haste appeared not to have been a virtue: the fragile alliance of merchants, knights and nobles having pushed to raise Prince Trystane to the rank he occupied were still debating whether they had to resist or surrender and hope for the eldest son's leniency. With the first assault launching itself against the outer fortifications, the dilemma was taking out of everyone's hands and everyone who knew how to wield a spear or a sword went to the defence of the citadel.

The Battle of Sunspear in definitive was decidedly a minor skirmish compared to the mighty clashes which had and would bloody the soil of Westeros in 301AC. They were well less than ten thousand fighters on all sides combined; no siege engines were used in anger by the participants (both sides having their own reasons to emerge with Sunspear in the best state possible) and all fighters did their best to leave the civilian population alone, diminishing the number of casualties to a number which was more worthy of a bandit raid. The Dornish inside Sunspear had no doctrine to employ against the Unsullied, not with the majority of their best levies and regulars armsmen passed to Baratheon service or dead in far-away battlefields. Morale was low, and hundreds of the defenders threw their weapons down or outright joined the attackers when things became clear their position was hopeless.

In less than four hours of battle, Sunspear had surrendered, leaving Prince Quentyn Martell enter his home in triumph. The joy of victory was short-lived. The throne room of Sunspear was empty. Two-thirds of the conspiracy behind Prince Trystane Martell were absent. So were Prince Trystane and his wife for that matter. And the guards who were counted among the most favourable to the new regime. And a good part of the treasury.

Commander Red Feet of the Unsullied and Prince Quentyn had certainly planned to find legitimacy and gold in taking the ancestral Martell castle. Both were in abeyance. The old councillors of Doran Martell Ricasso and Ser Manfrey Martell had disappeared, the coffers of precious metals had been spirited away. Worse, a platoon of agents willingly freed by the Storm Kingdom had used the fog of war generated by all this confusion to liberate the illegitimate daughter of Prince Oberyn Lady Tyene Sand and other dissenters like Lady Alyse Ladybright, who having supported the claim of Princess Arianne Martell had been imprisoned for their troubles after Prince Doran's death. With Prince Doran's chief guardsman Areo Hotah showing up at Storm's End after having fought his way through the Ironborn in the Stepstones and choosing Arianne Martell worthy of his axe, distinct and important figures had just taken the escape route.

At first, the new owners of Sunspear showed a cautious optimism. Quentyn Martell was acclaimed as the new Prince of Dorne in front of a cheering populace. The chief city and the most important fortress of Dorne had been captured after a display short on violence of all kind. Surely the hinterlands population and the desert nobility were going to rally to Prince Quentyn and the Targaryen cause, no? Ravens were sent and messengers departed for every important Dornish holdfast. Bounties were put on the walls for the capture of every member of Prince Trystane governance council. And the Unsullied mounted guard, ready for any consequences which might appear out of the sands.

The results did not make themselves wait. And they came in abundance. Twelve days after Prince Quentyn's arrival, two squadrons commanded by Admiral Davos Seaworth himself attacked the Essossi ships harboured in Planky Town. King Stannis's Master of Ships had missed the transports on their way to the Dorne port due to the severe storms hampering the visibility at sea to night levels, but the audacious admiral had no qualms at all not to attack them when they were lying defenceless side to side in full day. Forty ships 'borrowed' from Volantis burnt that day out of forty-two, with none of the Stormlands hulls suffering from more than minor damage. The defenders of Planky Town finally bringing their tactics up to standard after several hours and plenty of damage done to the coastal defences, Admiral Seaworth departed, confident that his victory there had restrained the available moves of the Targaryen infantry there for months if not years.

This estimation was not far off the target. Prince Trystane's position while the youngest Martell had sat at Sunspear had been growing worse and worse. His eldest brother's was no better, and indeed seemed to take a plunge into the description of 'bad'. Prince Quentyn had been fostered at Yronwood, and that was where his base of support started and ended in Dorne. The Yronwood, with their lord and their main knights fighting with King Stannis Baratheon, were disinclined to support him. Houses Uller and Qorgyle immediately declared him an usurper in their raven answers. At Godsgrace, cavalry and infantry of Houses Allyrion, Gargalen and Vaith mustered, declaring finally for Prince Trystane in front of the main interested and Princess Myrcella Baratheon. There were only three thousands men slowly marching along the Greenblood eastwards, but they were soon joined by hundreds of Orphans and volunteers smallfolks on the walk. Worse, the castles of Lemonwood and Ghost Hill respectively declared for Princess Arianne and Prince Trystane, effectively destroying any flank protection the army stationed at Sunspear might have had.

The Dornish Civil War could now run hot like the countrymen's wild temper. In the mountains protecting Sandstone from the west, Dayne and Qorgyle soldiers clashed in deadly ambushes and counters. Raiders from Hellholt brought devastation northwards, and the Yronwood cavalry answered the same way. But it was the core of the fighting at Sunspear which was going to be critical. The Greenblood was the lifeline of Dorne, and who controlled its shores had a good chance of ruling Dorne...that is if the colossal rains which began to fall did not interrupt the ongoing conflict. Months after it had come for the North, a winter of war was progressively taking over Dorne.


	83. Hell on the Seas

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Others, the Shivering Sea or Braavos.

 **Notification:** I don't know what the problem is with the website, but the reviews posted on the last chapter since May the tenth are nowhere to be seen. I am going to try to reply to everyone, but the issue is complicated by the fact I didn't keep everything on my private mail box, and some of the messages were also truncated in length due to their size. If I forget someone, I will reply to him next week or as soon as this problem has been corrected.

raw666: It would be indeed a logical reasoning, but a lot of the characters which could have been potential war leaders are fighting the Others in the North or imprisoned in various dungeons. The point of view of the smallfolk is for the moment detached from the war, as there has been relatively little casualties in the first stages. Of course, as the conflict becomes bloodier it is rapidly subject to change...

The Hound and his forces are going to reappear, never fear. They are in the Southern Westerlands for the moment but it is subject to change.

X59: Thanks! No, the White Walkers won't be involved in the Dornish Civil War. The Second Long Night and this familial infighting are completely unrelated events apart them happening at the same period.

Guest: Writing in the form of a history format has its drawbacks and its advantages. I tried something new for this story. It's completely possible I will try a more classic form of writing when time comes to start a new work.

Sandstone against Starfall is not as laughable as it might seems. There is no open battle in the desert, and the tactics of skirmishes and ambushes favours more the Qorgyles, who are fighting on their home ground and have adapted their strategies to delay their enemies to the rank of art. House Dayne is advancing, it's true. But the soldiers of Sandstone are not the members of a Great House by the luck of the draw...

Magnetar23: Thanks for the speculations and the ideas. The proposal of the North being more tied and reliant in larger communities brings many good points. Dorne manpower supplies for the fight against the White Walkers have evaporated like water in the desert, and no Daenerys has not abandoned all ideas to restore the kingdom of Westeros as it was under the Targaryen dynasty. The end of the Second Long Night promises not to be a restful era...

Eduard Kassel: Some of the Dornish crops will survive and even thrive in winter. Others won't survive, except in a few places created by the nobility like the Water Gardens.

And yes, it's true that whoever the winner, Dorne won't come out as powerful, respected and influential as they were pre-war...

 **Hell on the Seas**

 **Battles of the Shivering Sea Part I**

" _We should have brought dragons_." Anonymous Braavosi sailor, 301AC.

" _It is my opinion the next target will be the Vale. Or the Three Sisters. Or Braavos. Damn, the Others have way too many places to strike..._ " Imprecise Westerosi soldier, 301AC.

" _Warn the Vale. They have not helped us against the Lannisters, but I don't want them dead and raised as wights by the Others..._ " King Robb Stark, 301AC.

" _They said Braavos rules the waves. We can use the past sense now_." Lord Jason Mallister, 301AC.

" _Our admirals said we had only fear itself to fear. But this big dragon and the witch on it are also pretty bad I think..._ " Fearful Braavosi sailor, 301AC.

When the Others had narrowly escaped the encirclement King Robb Stark and King Stannis Baratheon had formed around White Harbor before sailing on their iceberg, the prevailing opinion in the warriors ranks had been the nightmarish enemies were going to retreat northwards and regroup before trying another offensive to exterminate all living things. While it was unfortunate concerning the length of the ongoing campaign, the lords having participated in the fight to rescue the Manderly city were confident it would allow the huge army to divide itself and liberate the northern plains, mountains and forests before the Others came back for another round.

It was only the logical thing to do, after all. The three battles of Bear Island, the siege of Winterfell, the Battle of Last Hearth and the Siege of White Harbor: as many battles where the Others and their dead legions had known defeat and lost tens of thousands wights, undead animals, giants, ice spiders and of course their elite White Walkers. The most important Northern citadels had held against the onslaught of the Long Night. Widow's Watch and Last Hearth were out of the strategic picture, but Winterfell, Deepwood Motte and Bear Island resisted. White Harbor, the Dreadfort, Ramsgate, Hornwood had not been devastated and were now providing bases for the counterattack of the Last Alliance.

The Others alas, had arrived to a very different conclusion. The depletion of their dead thralls was merely an inconvenience. Dead humans, birds of prey and animals could be found everywhere, if one was cold-blooded and ruthless enough to make this kind of military thinking. But as humanity would find out much later to their stupefaction, the number of White Walkers now available as reinforcements was now drastically limited. The abominations surrounding the Night's Queen, the forces besieging Winterfell and the soldiers dispersed thorough the North were the quasi-totality of the Others troops available for this conflict and the next century. And in this case, slowing down the rhythm of operations or withdrawing did not improve the odds of victory for the dwellers of the Lands of Always Winter.

To make matter worse, the combined armies of the dreaded ice queen and those of her sorcerers having had the idea of this unconventional ice transportation had far more than enough waves of undead to be categorised as a serious threat. Ignoring the endless corpses raised from death to murder the living, whether human or from another species, the Others had approximately one hundred big ice wyverns, two ice dragons (one of the two fully grown), scores of magical practitioners, and over fifteen thousand regular White Walker infantry, with more mounted on the infamous spiders serving as cavalry.

All were concentrated on three big icebergs, each of them the size of a small island. Ten other ice blocks were forming an irregular circle around the main ones, smaller but large enough to welcome thousands of wights. Finally, there was an external circle of iceberg. These ones were not big enough to have more than half a hundred animated skeletons or other dead beings ready to jump at the first enemy presenting itself, but there was no need to. This shield of frost and sorcery was consisting over a couple hundred icebergs high enough for their occupants to not be washed out by the apocalyptic weather reigning on the Shivering Sea, and there were more of these navigation dangers deriving in direction of the Narrow Sea.

It was, in a short explanation, the perfect defence and offence in one package. Any human fleet daring to attack such an ice armada would have to do it on the White Walkers own terms, pass the first iceberg under the attacks of the first wights and the long-range ice sorcery of the Night's Queen and her minions.

Until now, the Braavosi and Northern captains having looked this demoralising sight from their very eyes had declined to engage, a wise move considering the alternative was the loss of their naval commands and their entire crew for minimal losses. But things were about to change and get more desperate.

The ice fleet was now descending southwards, coming to unprepared new battlegrounds and potential new armies of corpses. The Others had to be intercepted before they exterminated a major population centre. Otherwise the situation would go back again to the moment the Wall had fallen.

The list of important targets the White Walkers were going to come in range was not long in the next fortnight depending on the direction they took, but it compensated by its frightening effect. Oldcastle, seat of House Locke. The islands of Pebble and the Paps. The Three Sisters. And of course, the most important targets: White Harbor and Braavos. The first and the third had the potential to close the Bite to all living navigation and bring a new siege of White Harbor, this time by sea instead of land. The second would give the Others a land base to land on the Vale should they choose. And losing the northernmost Essossi city would be a crippling blow, giving a massive advantage to the abominations and one major step on their path to murder everyone and make the Long Night an eternal one.

No, the ice fleet had to be intercepted at all costs, before it landed again. The problem was who was going to do it. The Stormlands fleet under Admiral Davos Seaworth was dispersed and too far in the south, and his small war galleys rebuilt after the disastrous First Battle of King's Landing would have been the wrong instrument anyway. Lord Garlan Tyrell and the remnants of the Reach navy were busy ferrying refugees out of the Iron Islands and troops to Blazewater Bay, on the other side of Westeros. The Iron Fleet and all Ironborn naval forces, save a few longships at Harlaw and Casterly Rock, were gone. The Vale fleet had burnt, sunk or mutinied, and had now less than ten hulls altogether. Dorne and the Westerlands had ceased to exist as maritime powers for the time being. And the Northern fleet, never the most powerful organisation to begin with, had about half of its warships in reparations or overhaul due to the insane risks it had taken to supply the Wall forces and rescue the survivors of the Others coastal offensives.

Only Braavos was left on the list of the naval powers able to intervene in time. The big dilemma was how to do it. The small icebergs playing the role of outer fortifications were able to shatter the wooden hulls of the Braavosi. And wights had proven largely able to do suicide jumps when the warships passed in proximity, trying to rupture masts, sails and everything causing some damage to the hull. In these stormy and freezing waters, a battered ship was a dying ship and the Others controllers had well understood that fact. A conventional attack, with the Night's Queen able to ride her dragon at her leisure, would be nothing more than a collective suicide. And it was one of the most optimistic estimates.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Admiral Vaderio, one of the most unconventional Braavosi admirals, had a plan. Or to be precise, more or less a very risky gamble. Using the Experimental Weapons Board of the Arsenal. The name, as it did not indicate, was more or less where the Braavosi community sent all its innovators and inventors having an alarming tendency to break, blow, pulverise, burn or melt everything going in proximity to them. Far outside the city on the eastern heights, to minimise the collateral destruction. It was rumoured in low whispers the board had seized the secret of wildfire and many alchemists creations during the reign of Aegon IV the Unworthy. There were tales of mechanical wonders. Doomsayers were often heard saying that the insane geniuses were making murderous devices the Faceless Men purchased for their weight in gold. All of this was proved true, historians and maesters having had access for decades to the unclassified searches of the Board.

Still, all these inventions would have been quite useless if the Arsenal of Braavos had not had the capacity to produce them in vast quantities at a moment notice. War-torn Westeros and Essos would not have been able to fabricate a tenth of what the Braavosi engineers did in one month. From the moment the fall of Skagos had arrived, the Braavosi preparations had taken a frenetic and infernal in cadence. Now it remained to be seen if it was going to be enough.

Under the Titan of Braavos, one of the mightiest fleet ever seen passed before forming battle formation. Well over eight hundred warships, all wearing purple sails, furbishing the most powerful weapons the Bastard Daughter of Valyria had been able to give her children. And it didn't count the multitude of squadrons already on patrol in the Shivering Sea and the Bite, scheduled to join them at different secret points. Or the vast stock of dragonglass mined and expedited in a hurry before the Second Battle of Dragonstone. For better or for worse, the die had been cast.

In the mean time, the Last Alliance had not stayed inactive. With the few transports free and stable to cross the dangerous Bite, Ser Wylis Manderly had been busy transporting five thousand soldiers to Sisterton on Sweetsister island to prevent the White Walkers to touch ground there, commanded by Jon Snow and with Jon 'Smalljon' Umber as second. The ordeal promised to be difficult if not impossible. House Sunderland had sounded the call for arms, like House Borrell, Longthorpe and Torrent, but the number of Sistermen mustering for war was unsatisfactory, being well under one thousand men for the three islands. A good part of the young and old generations of the Three Sisters had passed their lives playing smugglers and pirates, antagonising the Starks and Manderlys policies to make the Bite a haven of peace. To say there was some bad blood would be keeping reports of the last years polite. More discouraging, the fortifications supposed to repel pirates or corsairs were in ruins or needed months of repairs. The regular wights would not be stopped by such meagre preparations. All hope stayed in the Braavosi stopping the Great Enemy at sea or the Night's Queen landing elsewhere.

The first act alas didn't happen, though no lack of sacrifice and blood on the part of the Braavosi sailors. Sailing in the middle of a massive storm, the next best thing to a thousand ships engaged the Others in a legendary clash which would be remembered for years to come. The engineers of the Arsenal had well worked. The first barriers of ice were moved apart by ice-breakers purpose-built for the occasion. Massive ballista and catapults shredded the top of the icebergs, throwing countless amounts of wights into the sea (and giving birth to fantastic stories where endless armies of death are walking on the sea floor for eternity). The imported Braavosi version of the wildfire, manifesting in purple flames, blasted away the outer edge of the mountains of ice formations. The Braavosi lost between seventy and eighty warships in less than an hour, but a path had been cleared to attack the positions of the White Walkers and their leadership.

It was not counting the Night's Queen. The inhuman sorceress had realised the peril her army and her fleet were currently in, and rose on her dragon to defeat the Essossi. This time, the weapons forged by the Arsenal to bring down a dragon proved themselves insufficient to the task. The ice beast was literally glowing in a blue light, a halo undoubtedly magical in nature that had not existed when the Wall fell. Scorpion bolts, arrows and all projectiles were shrugged off by the ice powers and the dragon scales. And without means to strike the dragon, the issue of the fight was too predictable. It was a complete massacre. In one passage, the Night's Queen dragon unleashed a cold fire which destroyed more than sixty warships. To penetrate the iceberg fleet, the Braavosi had to sail in a close formation, and at this moment it was a death sentence. Moving away was impossible without ramming their own allies. The Others were closing the breach. The second ice dragon showed signs it was going to join its bigger cousin in the dark sky. And the Night's Queen came back. The second passage was even more devastating than the first, sinking and utterly destroying 'only' forty warships, but those included the _Iron Titan_ , Admiral Vaderio's flagship and the _Purple Seadancer_ , Admiral Likassis's flagship. The annihilation of the command's chain, the sheer terror of the dragon breath and the total confusion ended the cohesion of the Braavosi. Even the most ferocious and courageous captains realised their salvation remained in fleeing.

One by one, then squadrons by squadrons, the Braavosi warships retreated, launching all their reserves of purple fire and their armament on the iceberg to do the maximum of damage and prevent a pursuit. While the main icebergs were out of reach, the outer ones weren't. Hundreds of wights joined the dying humans in the cold and sinister embrace of the Shivering Sea. The screams of both sides mounted in litany. The waters were gloomy and dark, but the red colour of the blood was all too visible, lightened by the wildfire and the blue sorcery. And then the two ice dragons dove for the third time and there was no more resistance. Humanity had just lost the first major battle at sea it had fought against the Others.

The Battle of the Shivering Sea crippled the Braavosi Navy, although the Republic could and would recover from these losses. The news however, made grim reading. A thousand ships had entered the battle; three hundred and fifty-seven had sunk, the majority with all hands. And of the crew who survived, the casualties were legion and many men deceased in the fortnights to come as the dreaded ice arrows and swords plunged their victims in comatose states and then killed them. The funeral pyres lightened on the hulls unable to limp back to Braavos would tear apart the heart of thousands brothers, fathers and husbands. Sixteen Braavosi admirals had participated in the battle; exactly three survived to report before Sealord Fregar. The only good news was the inability of the White Walkers to raise the drowned in high waters. Apparently. For the moment.

And the Night's Queen was now free to threaten the Bite, the Vale and Braavos itself, having eradicated the opposition on the seas. For the humans fighting the armies of the Second Long Night, the future was growing darker and darker...


	84. Flames of Futures Pasts

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Dragonstone, Daenerys Targaryen or the dragons.

raw666, CaptainToast321: Thanks for the support!

X59: Don't worry, the wake-up call is coming and it's going to be hellish...

Guest: Duly noted, but this story will persevere and thrive under this style of writing.

justanothermuggle's fan: I admire your dedication to my story. Two days? Damn...

Paul: Good news so far, the review problems seemed to be a thing of the past. Long reviews may officially happen again!

The wights and the Others roaming the ocean floor are part-World War Z, part Pirates of the Caribbean. Suffice to say everyone is hoping these drowned armies will never resurface...

The Braavosi fleet has suffered a defeat, but the navy is alive and in position to cause monumental headaches to the Others. Their part in this story is not over, not by a long shot.

As for the targets the White Walkers will strike it's a surprise! It could be one, two or three at the same time by dividing their forces. Or it could be none of the above and a new destination is selected...

Eduard Kassel: Well to be honest relations between Robb and the Vale are cold at the moment. They never came to his help, and they killed some of his emissaries. Only the nomination of Yohn Royce as Lord Protector has stopped the diplomatic waters to freeze.

Yes, a sort of wildfire still lives (a bit more reliable and controlled compared to the Alchemist product). All in the name of SCIENCE!

Thanks again for the comments, and yes this is another great fleet which takes hideous casualties.

 **Flames of Futures Pasts**

 **The Seven Kingdoms in the Darkness Part I**

" _I am not Azor Ahai. But I am the Queen of Meereen, Volantis, Slaver's bay and the Seven Kingdoms. Don't bend the knee and you will learn the words fire and blood."_ Queen Daenerys Targaryen, 301AC.

"I _, for one, do welcome our new draconic overlord. No, not the Night's Queen."_ Ser Justin Massey, 301AC.

" _Let's just hope the woman is not as mad as her father..._ " King Robb Stark, 301AC.

" _The dragons will be useful. The Targaryen...will be a problem._ " King Stannis Baratheon, 301AC.

" _There is still a Targaryen alive and she has dragons? Maybe my nuncle told some truths while breathed..."_ Lady Asha Greyjoy, 301AC.

" _Touch the sword and die. Don't touch it and live. The choice is not that difficult."_ Anonymous Essossi soldier speaking about Lightbringer, 301AC.

 _Oh Wandering Dragon that passes over sand and sea  
What will you find amidst the ashes of your past?  
Can the dead tell you tales you do not wish to hear  
Will the silence of the city speak of a legacy of ash and death?_

 _Here at last you return  
Here at last you come to claim an old birthright  
Instead of dreams you find nightmares  
Instead of red doors, you find countless pyres_

 _Fly far, and fly fast, Wandering Dragon  
Go now to that battle beyond thrones and kings  
In your hands is destiny and in your children you have power  
Yet what end will you find as the world bleeds in terror unending_

 _But despair not, O Stormborn, O Lady that broke a million chains  
For destiny and fate cannot be written be those that surrender to the past and to the pain  
Look to the future, dark as it may be  
And perhaps yet again, a day of peace we shall yet again see..._

Extract from The Lay of Turin the Blind Poet, 303AC.

When the sword Lightbringer was deposed in front of Queen Daenerys Targaryen after the Second Battle of Dragonstone, the overwhelming majority of the soldiers and sailors present thought the recognition of the young Targaryen woman as Azor Ahai was an accomplished fact. After all, the Mother of Dragons had just carbonised with her dragons a crab so big its carcass was going to be a subject of admiration and study for the decades to come and annihilated a wight army, forcing the Others sorcerers to release their hold established on Dragonstone. From the snowy battlefields of the North to the sands of Dorne, it was a feat difficult to beat.

What happened when Daenerys Targaryen touched Lightbringer thus came as a complete surprise. One instant, nothing happened. The next, the flames of Lightbringer turned blacker and in the close distance, a column of fire rose from the Dragonmount in an apocalyptic thunder, a panache of smoke and dark clouds crowning the volcano in a dark omen. The three dragons emitted roars of agony heard leagues away.

And the Mothers of Dragons, Queen Daenerys Targaryen, was rapidly traversed by powerful tendrils of fire then loosened her hold on the flaming sword before slowly collapsing and being caught by Ser Barristan Selmy. A rapid check assured the daughter of Aerys II was alive and breathing. But the signal had been high and clear. The Stormborn was not Azor Ahai.

After that, many men discovered themselves a new thirst of ambition and glory. The most obvious claimant eliminated, the path was open to become the saviour of this world. Plenty of Braavosi, Pentoshi, Dothraki and others Essossi demanded to try their chance in the Lightbringer trial.

It was not an intelligent thing to do. Queen Daenerys Targaryen had survived holding the enchanted weapon five or six seconds, a deed many attributed to her lineage, the links with her dragons and her apparent invulnerability to flames. The men who advanced afterwards had no such advantages. One by one, the pretenders went through and touched Lightbringer. One by one, they perished. Some combusted in white flames after an unbearable agony. The majority aged decades in a moment, like if the time had suddenly accelerated for them. A couple simply went mad, and had to be executed for their own good, the victims trying to claw their eyes out or attacking their former friends. Fortunately, the Dragonmount didn't erupt one more time. A volcanic eruption was really not needed after a tiring battle against the Forces of Winter.

Finally after three hourglasses were emptied, there were no more volunteers. Not counting Daenerys Targaryen, seventy-nine men had tried their chance and all had left this world in gruesome fashion. The Red Priests who recovered this sword had to use several long steel pincers to make sure they wouldn't perish the same way. Not that the followers of R'hllor were discouraged not to have found their hero on Dragonstone. At once, a party of red robes paid for a ship travel to Duskendale and the Crownlands. Azor Ahai had to be found, no matter the cost.

The Targaryen forces had far more secular preoccupations. While the Queen recovered in the dragon fortress, Ser Barristan Selmy sent ravens and messengers to the Narrow Sea Houses, the lords of Cracklaw Points and the various castles of the former Crownlands. Official announces of Viserys Targaryen's sister return were now willingly spread (though of course Dorne had received notifications several fortnights before by the mouth of Prince Quentyn and his military escort) and demands were made for every noble and warrior of note to come and bend the knee.

This method did not meet any definition of success. Perhaps, if the pre-War of the Eight Kings lords had been in power and the former Targaryen holdings not suffered raids, carnage and pillage, the messages could have raised hundreds of soldiers to unfurl the banner of the red dragon. Maybe. But it was not the case here and now. First, the winter striking Westeros was one of the worst seen in generations, and men, women and children had absolutely no wish to stay outside in the cold more than necessary. Secondly, King Robb Stark, King Stannis Baratheon, Ser Wendel Manderly, Lord Roose Bolton and several famous commanders had recruited with them the soldiers able and willing to fight against the White Walkers and for the Dawn. Thirdly, most of the Noble Houses possibly harbouring Targaryen loyalties had been extinguished or suffered crippling casualties. Where there had been a kingdom named the Crownlands before, the new repartition had its fair share of Northern and Riverlands young warriors incorporated. The parts south of the Blackwater had also gone to King Stannis supporters. No matter the case, the new conquerors had absolutely no reason to feel a fondness for the Mother of Dragons.

The days before Queen Daenerys Targaryen recovered from the magical ordeal saw several small forces swear allegiances, but it was challenging to present each as a triumph. House Celtigar, by the voice of her new head, Lady Lucia Celtigar, declared for the Stormborn Queen, a choice many felt was no stranger to the proximity of Dragonstone, the existence of the dragons and the heavy losses taken in the Blackwater inferno during the First Battle of King's Landing as well as the death of Lord Ardrian during the Second Battle fought in the same city. Lord Bartimos Sunglass and Lord Edwell Rambton did it more enthusiastically, but one had fled beforehand to Volantis because his elder brother was burnt by Melisandre of Asshai, and the other had been hiding in the hills of Driftmark in fear the fate of his cousins, slain and burnt, became his if the deceased Red Priestess wished it. Minor clans and knights of the Crabbs, Hoggs, Boggs, Pyne and Brunes added themselves to the list, but it was a rather underwhelming display when one knew the forces Aegon I had had once in command before sailing away to conquer the rest of the Seven Kingdoms. Gathered at the same place at the time, less than eight hundred men-at-arms would have been rallied. And to have that many soldiers laid principally with the fame and the popularity of Ser Barristan 'the Bold' Selmy.

Nevertheless, the Conqueror three hundred plus years ago had not had an army of over forty thousand on the other side of the Narrow Sea. On the side of the drawbacks, this formidable mass was not going to land in a day nor in a score of days. Not with the orders coming from Braavos becoming pressing, urgent and alarming, recalling the warships and the swiftest hulls to defend their home.

This was the situation welcoming the Heiress of Valyria when she woke up from the comatose state done by Lightbringer. A changed dragon queen. While no one could doubt they had the Mother of Dragons in front of their very eyes, purple eyes and silver hair being far from common among the human race if one doesn't use dyeing, the appearance of the Queen had been significantly altered. Daenerys Targaryen had been considered a beautiful woman before; now with her skin glowing like pure ivory, her hair shining in a silver light, her purple iris underlined by small crimson touches, the sovereign of Meereen and Volantis had a fair chance of winning the most beautiful woman contest without a debate.

Touching Lightbringer had not been an act free of disturbing issues, however. The first, and the most important, manifested in the dragons. The most fanatic partisans of the Mother of Dragons could very well protest it, the control of their dragonlady over her 'children' had been quite often on the edge and a few times bordering on 'out of control'. A term which, for every sane person having had the honour to watch one of the majestic flying reptiles, was honestly terrifying.

Once Queen Daenerys emerged, her problems with Drogon disappeared like by...magic. The black dragon was now extremely obedient, and there are numerous books detailing today how the relationship between the Mother of Dragons and the greatest of the three fire-breathing lizards was similar to the one between a warg and his animals. No magical good deed goes without an adverse reaction, alas. If Queen Daenerys Targaryen was now completely bonded to the most powerful dragon in existence, the power and influence she had over Rhaegal and Viserion was greatly diminished if one wanted to be optimist, and non-existent if an observer wanted to be impartial.

It wasn't truly that dangerous for the white dragon, who was suffering from the sequels of the dragon horn. Viserion was perfectly content to let his guards feed him a pig or two and fly over a deserted portion of Dragonstone in the morning without causing any problems. But Rhaegal...the green dragons was the next best thing to uncontrollable. The only stick the Queen of Meereen had at her disposition to make the reptile obey was Drogon, and even then Rhaegal didn't submit without a fight in the rules.

Efforts to find volunteers to ride the two riders-less dragons went nowhere. It was common knowledge in the Valyrian folklore only humans having the blood of Old Valyria could ride the supreme sky predators. Trying it without this inheritance was no less hazardous than handling Lightbringer. A few dragonseeds, illegitimate descendants of the Targaryen dynasty, tried to gain notoriety and fame, but in pure loss. At best, the courageous young men (or suicidal depending on the perspective) managed to run away like the Seven Hells were at their pursuit, mainly in Viserion's case. At worst, the flame of the dragon devoured them. Quite often when someone failed to mount Rhaegal. Finally, Queen Daenerys had recovered enough to ride without failings of health, and flew with Drogon to King's Landing, followed by some five hundred men in a few large transports. A similar detachment sailed towards Duskendale, content in the reports affirming the strength of the Starks and the Baratheons was in no position to intervene.

The first sight the Mothers of Dragons had of Westeros thus was the ruins of what had been during three hundred years the capital of the Seven Kingdoms. It was not completely empty of life: under the orders of King Robb Stark, hundreds of Northerners had been charged to keep an eye on this critical point and ensure the Storm Kingdom had no envies of revenge. Smallfolk having fled the city had come back, braving the haunted appearances of their former homes and the dangers spread by rumours of curses. Braavosi and Pentoshi merchants had come back, making modest efforts to see if there was anything salvageable in this city having once been the heart of half a million souls.

Still, the reestablishment was very modest and could not be qualified more than a group of survivors camping in the middle of the devastation. Due to the Others and the major events having impacted the Narrow Sea, the number of Essossi present was less than fifty. The majority of the North presence had been seriously depleted by Lord Roose Bolton, because with King Stannis and his troops fighting the White Walkers the original mission was useless and the patrols were required further north. And the Kingslanders refugees numbered only between five and seven hundred men, women and children.

With the benefit of hindsight, it was better the population residing in the destroyed settlement was on the low end. Because Queen Daenerys Targaryen didn't enjoy the view on top of her dragon. The Braavosi sailors had already informed the Mother of Dragons of the picture which was going to await her. But telling it was one thing. Seeing it quite another. Queen Daenerys entered a rage described by the rare witnesses as incandescent and volcanic. And it didn't get any better when the Stormborn dismounted and the remains of the Iron Throne were sighted. The Northern lords' demolition to take back the swords having been an integral part of the throne had not been subtle to say the least. Dragonfire was unleashed in a murderous rage, finishing to collapse several quarters and houses which had held only by a miracle of the Gods, ironically saving potential lives when the reconstruction efforts started at the end of the Second Long Night. The young woman screamed long imprecations, demanding the guilty parties to come out and ask for mercy.

The Northern party present did of course nothing of the sort. The men Lord Bolton had left behind were not the brightest minds of Westeros, but the most dim-witted of these fifty men had realised revealing their presence to the black dragon and its wrathful rider was insanity at its finest. Hidden in the cellars and the obscure corners of King's Landing, the soldiers waited for the fire fury to abate.

By the time, the Essossi and the Targaryen soldiers managed to calm the enraged Mother of Dragons, a quarter of the Northerners had perished, dragonfire being a very dangerous substance and fate being not with them on this dark day. Smallfolk deaths were null, all having left the protection of the city when the black wings were first seen, and there was no action to harm them. The Northern survivors in the mean while fled east and north in the complete obscurity of the night, praying the dragon would not notice them.

In the short-term, the death of these troops did not mean anything. All the Westerosi smallfolk swore allegiance to Queen Daenerys Targaryen after this demonstration of power, clearly not wishing to be included in Drogon's next meal or burnt when the dragonlady had another anger crisis.

In the grand scheme of things and the long-term, it meant everything. In these cold and dark months of 301AC, nearly every part of the divided Seven Kingdoms had stopped the internal infighting to stop the Others. The Westerlands. The Vale. The Reach. The North. The Stormlands. The Riverlands. The Iron Islands. No matter the allegiances and feuds involved, the men and women of the Sunset kingdoms had agreed to settle their differences after the Others were repulsed and no longer a threat. In other words, when the abominations were annihilated.

But as seen with the arrival of Prince Quentyn Martell at Planky Town and Queen Daenerys Targaryen at King's Landing, it was evident the new Essossi arrivals were not feeling this stop of the hostilities applied to them. The honour of House Targaryen, already tarnished by the events leading to and during Robert's Rebellion, really didn't need this indelible stain. To make the issues worse, the inhabitants of Duskendale and the surrounding lands soon understood the Targaryen invasion was integrally consisting of soldiers and civilians who didn't speak a single word of their language and were fully intending to live in a new land where they wouldn't be treated like chattel. In war-torn and foreign lands already occupied. In the middle of a terrible winter. At a time no one, not even the highest nobles of every realm, could be sure they would have enough food to last the Long Night.

To her credit, Queen Daenerys Targaryen seemed to recognise the dangerous amount of unrest and resentment brewing by the mere arrival of one thousand men, and quickly diverted the second wave of her army towards the Vale and the Bay of Crabs in order to avoid a plague of logistical difficulties, while she flew Drogon towards Riverrun.

Unfortunately, like many times with the young and beautiful Dragon Queen, this order failed to address the first issue while creating three others at the same time. To begin with, the locals did not felt that grateful they had escaped the arrival of more freedmen and the infamous Dothraki barbarians. The ones who had already landed were quite enough to generate their disgust. Then, the Vale and the Bay of Crabs had suffered from the Vale Civil War and the War of the Eight Kings, though much less than other areas in the Westerlands or the Iron Islands archipelago. The Targaryen leadership under the Queen was badly lagging behind their sovereign and providing untimely or not pertinent advices. Finally, it failed to account for the Others offensive and the worrying position humanity was finding itself in the War for the Dawn. Queen Daenerys Targaryen and all those following her were going to regret these mistakes before the end of this troubled era...


	85. Hour of Chaos

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Yi-Ti, the Prince Who Was Promised or the Five Forts.

raw666: It's true Robert would have been able to unite Westeros better than Daenerys. At the era of Robert's Rebellion. By the time the Others arrived, being charismatic would not have been enough. The King would have had to take the battlefield with his famous warhammer. Humanity would have needed a living, breathing hero to fight to the bitter hand. Daenerys can, sort of, with her dragons.

Robert at the time of the books certainly couldn't, and would have taken years to come back into shape. Time the King didn't have, assuming Cersei didn't assassinate him first when she saw him training for war again.

Magnetar23: Yes, irony is often simply murderous in Westeros...though to be honest Daenerys simply collapsed buildings who would have been destroyed anyway in order for the reconstruction efforts to start.

The Others are in theory able to strike on every coast. In reality, it's more complicated. They have lost a huge part of their sea forces, and are going to expend more in a coming battle. They have the potential to remain an incredible threat, but not to assault everywhere the fancy takes them.

The Children of the Forest are for the moment as useful as they are in the books...which is to say absolutely not. And it will be remembered.

Azor Ahai's identity...not telling for the moment. But there will be many upheavals on this road before the end.

X59: Yes, indeed. Winning the hearts and the souls of all Westerosi is going to be an incredibly difficult challenge for Daenerys.

As for Jaime, yes, his moment of release draws near...

Guest: Daenerys had time to recover, and you underestimate the speed of a dragon flying. According to GRRM, a dragon can fly from the capital to Storm's End in a day. Even a travel to the North is going to last a week or so (maybe a bit more now that winter has settled). Daenerys to travel from Dragonstone to the ruins of King's Landing isn't going to be a tiresome affair at all.

As for her erratic actions, consider this is not written by someone having the Targaryen best interests at heart, and that the Mother of Dragons actions in the books are often seen as questionable by the common soldier or smallfolk in the streets.

melubarv: No, nobody, not even Ser Barristan Selmy has had the courage to tell her the truth (the Bold eh?). There are some rumours and acts Daenerys is aware of. But the free burnings of lords and children, the total madness of her father and the successive rapes of her mother are not of them.

nappus: No, Daenerys is not a moron or crazy. What she is, is a young woman with a temper who returns to her homeland to find it completely ruined and with a lot of people expecting her to solve all the problems while others wants her gone. And she has a dragon with her to do the demolishing. Sad to say, but a lot of Westerosi lords would act considerably worse than that...

Paul: It's indeed possible Daenerys is Azor Ahai in canon world. But if she indeed is, then GRRM has better hurry. Else there is not going to be much of a continent to save...Seriously, I will laugh. Most probably this story will be over when the Winds of Winter are finally published.

For the moment, Daenerys heir by default is Arianne Martell's unborn child, because the soon-to-be-born babe has Targaryen (or is it Blackfyre?) blood in his veins. The Baratheons are the only alternative, and you know how Daenerys feels about them. As for Azor Ahai, it will not be revealed until I decide it (yes, I know it is cruel, isn't it?).

In general, it was spare knights of the narrow Sea Houses who went to join Daenerys. The Head of Houses are waiting to see how the situation unravels before taking the field themselves. Edwell Rambton is a first cousin of Hubard. I have not decided whether Dick Crabb is still alive by that point.

Of course I'm going to make the Tolletts appears, a large dose of black humour is going to be necessary when the storm comes...

And now, a Yi-Ti bloody interlude...

 **Hour of Chaos**

 **Tales of the Long Night Part II**

 _"Was Chai Cao the Joffrey of Yi-Ti?"_ Princess Arya Stark, 324AC.

 _"By all the Gods Old and New...was there a single honourable man left in Yi-Ti?"_ Grand Admiral Davos Seaworth, 323AC.

 _"Victory...is mine! Now bow, insects! Your God is coming!"_ Chai Cao, Battle of the Fall, 300AC.

 _"Some help would greatly appreciated."_ Commander Li Sun of the Five Forts, 300AC.

" _Yi-Ti is a country of ruins and there is not much to see there save them._ " Prince Rickon 'the Wild Wandering Direwolf' Stark, 323AC.

Contrary to one might expect, the Battle of the North and the sea battles raging in the Shivering Sea were not the only places where humanity fought for its very survival. In the Basilisk Isles, an impressive fleet of pirates was struggling to preserve the Isle of Tears from the rapacious attacks of monkey humanoid warriors, with increasingly difficulty as time passed. The civil war in Asshai-by-the-Shadows continued to rage, fuelled by hundreds of different types of magic. The Dothraki Sea was the recipient of multiple campaigns between the different powerful khals. At Qarth, there were reports that a malevolence had taken ground in the Red Waste, such were the numbers of venomous snakes resurging and the illusions seen by the rare adventurers willing to go in this desert.

But if heroes and heroines managed to win spectacular battles in the Sunset Kingdoms against the Others and their wights' servants, such as the Battle of White Harbor, the Three Battles of Bear Island or the Siege of Winterfell, the situation in the Far East was worse. Dramatically worse.

Indeed, it was so bad that even the kind of defeats the White Walkers had given the Braavosi on the stormy and dark waters of the Shivering Sea looked like near-victories. After all, the sailors of the Titan had done huge damage to the outer icebergs and the reserves of undead, right? Without the Night's Queen and her dragon, the purple sails of Braavos would possibly have struck a considerable blow to the abomination and their plans of winter domination.

In Yi Ti, to tens of thousands souls sorrow, it was a far more dire scene. Foul sorceries the world had forgotten for thousands of years, assuming anyone had been evil enough to learn them in the first place, were unleashed in the countryside, transforming the peaceful lands into scenes of carnage and insanity. As the sun disappeared, ashes and burning rains fell from the skies, destroying harvests while demons rose to devour animals and humans without any favouritism.

It should not have been like this. The Westerosi had built the Wall, a gigantic seven hundred feet tall fortification running on three hundred leagues to defend the human realms under the guidance of Brandon the Builder. It was true the Night's Queen had ultimately managed to breach it, but the Wall had given the opportunity to the Northmen to cause plenty of holes in the winter warriors' formations. And then counterattack, giving the dwellers of the Lands of Always Winter many reasons to hesitate when it came to advance a date for their ultimate victory.

Half a world away, the Yi-Tish had the Five Forts. Five massive fortresses, each being built of black fused stones. The outer walls were five hundred feet tall. The middle ones were reaching seven hundred feet above the ground. As for the dungeons and the inner walls, they were a thousand feet high, structures so imposing they were invisible in the clouds when the weather turned rainy or stormy. Each of these titanic masterworks predated the Rise of the Freehold, and yet remained in a perfect state of conservation. According to the Legend, the Forts had been built by the Pearl Emperor at the zenith of the Great Empire of the Dawn, to ensure the demons of the Lion of the Night would never threaten Yi Ti nor any other of the human empires, khanates and kingdoms.

And to be fair, the Five Forts had obviously fulfilled their function extremely well during eight thousand years. The average garrison inside one of the Forts was close to ten thousand men; with the one hundred feet tall fortification linking the citadels between themselves, the different sentry points and the cities having developed in the shadows of these military wonders, the number of soldiers present was close to one hundred thousand men. To make the power of the Five Forts even more redoubtable, a major road had been created to supply the Forts, allowing the God-Emperor and the rest of Yi-Ti to reinforce quickly the eastern frontier should any enemy come out of the grey Waste to defy the might of the Dawn Empire. As a consequence, the Five Forts in time of necessity could be bolstered by half a million men in a matter of months...and these would be only the first of many shock troops Yi-Ti would bring in the battle. Raiders, warlords, ferocious tribesmen, heretics, monsters...all had failed to make the slightest amount of damage to this series of fortresses so imposing it was rumoured the Gods had participated in their elaboration.

This had been centuries ago. By the end of the year 299AC, the men charged to find the Five Forts had abandoned all hope the God-Emperor and the scores of Princes were going to send a single soldier to help them accomplish their duty. Not with a three-way civil war happening at the same time. And while the men stationed there were not in the unpleasant tactical situation of the Night's Watch before the wildling attack, having close to seventy-five thousand men to guard their section of the eastern frontier, the challenge they faced could not be described as good. The black brother had had Mance Rayder and his army to fight; Commander Li Sun and his warriors had to stop the Shrykes, green-scaled monsters being a curious combination of poisonous lizards and men.

The battle was of an implacable ferocity, the Shrykes being such mortally scared of the demons behind them they fought to the last, covering the ground in front of the Five Forts of their corpses. Estimates, judged conservative by every person interested in this front of the Second Long Night, assumed between two hundred thousand and two hundred and fifteen thousand Shrykes were exterminated in a dozen days of murder.

Unfortunately, this bloodbath had just been the prelude. The Shrykes mortal remains had still not been completely buried in large trenches that the Great Enemy came out of the Grey Waste in a multitude never seen in the last millennia. The differences were obvious compared to the Others of Westeros. This time, no cold, frost and blue lights, but ashes, dark fires and ruby glazes where an eternal and pure loathing could be guessed. Before these inhuman legions, tens of thousands Shrykes, human bandits, raiders and marauders were pushed. Evidently, these troops were not wights, a fact every literate man agrees on today, the issues of breathing and their heart beatings being strong arguments against it. But in reality, no one doubted these humans, animals and other species served the same purposes for the masters of ashes and cinders. In spite of being alive, the thralls fought like berserkers, no matter the state of their body. Cutting a leg, an arm of spilling their intestines on the ground only decupled their determination to fight and murder. Only decapitation or stabbing the heart was sufficient to eliminate them. And they made for redoubtable enemies. The ruby eyes and the tendrils of fire spreading thorough their bodies gave them twice the physical capabilities they had had before their transformation.

The Yi-Tish, who had already lost two thousand men against the Shrykes, initially stood firm against a deluge of flames and the demoniac vast armies. The Orientals were severely outnumbered, close to ten-to-one, but the maze of fortifications known as the Five Forts and their surroundings had been built to repulse any conceivable assault. The losses in the attackers mounted in the tens of thousands in the first hours, and the insanity continued for four more days with countless siege engines exchanging a duel of sorcery and projectiles before a breach was made in the rampart liking the different Forts.

When it came, the survivors affirmed it was like someone had given birth to a volcano under the human defensive positions. Magma soared to the skies, before falling down in a deadly fire rain, killing every mortal located beneath. Visible to a naked eye hundreds of leagues, the vortex of destruction swallowed the bodies, the weapons, the steel and the stones in a red ocean. And then the hordes swarmed the breach just created. Approximately fifteen thousand men gave their lives to slow down the demons or escape this infernal trap, in pure loss. By the end of the day, the fire abominations had taken one Fort, and the next night they took another, leaving no one living and a sea of ashes in their wake.

The Five Forts army was now defeated, their ancients redoubts and headquarters devastated. Worse, the three Forts still fighting could not unite, as the northernmost fort was separated from the two others by an inhuman army numbering in the tens of thousands.

In vain the Yi-Tish waited for reinforcements which could have allowed them to turn back the tide of darkness. But there was no King Robb Stark or King Stannis Baratheon to save the courageous sentinels of the East. Neither the leaders Chai Cao, Pol Qo nor Bu Gai had affirmed in a public audience a minor will to help the situation there, beginning by sending a messenger or two to see what the hell was going on.

The fact that the Jhogos Nhai, the hereditary enemies of the Yi-Tish for as long as the memories and songs existed, were the ones mustering their hordes to come to the rescue of the Five Forts was particularly telling of the irresponsibility of the God-Emperors pretenders.

Not that it was the only blame to lay at the fit of the three claimants, oh no. The War of the Fall, by this point, had truly and officially reached a level which made the War of the Eight Kings looks like a series of small-sized disputes and skirmishes, and would manage to greatly disturb battle-hardened veterans like Princess Arya Stark or Admiral Davos Seaworth when the first merchants to return to the Westerosi shores made their reports years later.

First, there was General Pol Qo, or to use the aggrandising title the man had chosen himself, the first Orange Emperor. Since the official start of his rebellion at Trade Town, the traitorous general was marching south towards the capital of Yin, burning and doing incalculable damage to the Empire. Nan Hon. Yi Bin. Hua Hua. As many major cities the Orange army had reduced to the status of ruins, where the sole and only living things were diseased animals. In their long-march to overthrow the Azure God-Emperor, the cruelty and the rapacity of the north-western legions knew no bounds. Excited by the legendary bounties awaiting them when came the hour of triumph, the soldiers unleashed all their rancour and their anger forged in the long years passed fighting the Jhogos Nhai while their nobles enjoyed themselves in their opulent palaces.

Then, there was Bu Gai, last supreme ruler of the Azure dynasty. Or to be more precise, the army of eunuchs ruling in the place of Bu Gai. King Robert Baratheon had kept Varys as Master of Whisperers during his reign; the Azure God-Emperor was so lost in his delirious dreams fuelled by drugs and other dangerous substances it was his supposed advisors who commanded and moved the Azure tens of thousands loyalists. Honesty commanded to affirm the job they did was decidedly...sub-par. Deprived of any contact with reality, these men who had never left the imperial grounds of Yin took decisions to abandon fortresses which could have bled the enemies, ordered open battles when it was suicidal to do so, and generated so much confusion plenty of officers ceased to report the exact numbers and conditions of their armies. Loyal generals became warlords by necessity. Cities abandoned the Azure allegiance, believing their survival would not be assured if they continued to listen the imbecilic methods written in the received missives.

But there was worse. Chai Cao, self-proclaimed sixty-ninth yellow God-Emperor and amoral sorcerer, was causing far more destruction, rapes, burnings, executions and others atrocities than all the other belligerents added together. The armies of Carcosa were marching westwards in the direction of Yin too, and leaving a trail of destruction so big it could be seen hundreds of leagues away. Against the fell sorceries and the cruelty of Chai Cao, plus the awful fate of Jinqi, the majority of the towns, villages and fortresses surrendered, wishing to avoid being impaled or subjected to another torture the mad man was noted to be fond of.

Alas for this particular logic reasoning, Chai Cao was growing more and more insane. At least five times a Yi-Tish city laid down its weapons, only to be sacked by the infantry of the sixty-ninth Yellow God-Emperor. Thousands of hybrids between animals and humans were recruited or created by dark powers. Lands were salted or torched for the only reason Chai Cao felt he could. Young women and girls of age were forcibly taken from their families to form a harem court for the Carcosa tyrant. Harvests were spoilt or delivered in their entirety to the marauders and raiders, starving the great majority of the smallfolk to death. The towns of De Yang and Xi Ning became funeral pyres, birthing smoke clouds covering the sun for days. By contrast, the campaign of King Euron Greyjoy in the Reach was small and kind-hearted.

The number of deaths and disappearances was beyond mortal comprehension. Hundreds of thousands men, women and children certainly. Perhaps millions. And these were only the actions of the main forces. In every province of the Yi-Ti Empire, partisans of every pretender fought and bled in the name of men they had never met in their entire lives.

This era of cataclysm found its gory climax in the Battle of Yin. Or as it is more known in the known world, the Battle of the Fall. In a last and desperate gamble, the eunuchs retrenched in the Yin Imperial Palace took an extreme risk, officially sending away the last main army under their command, banking on the fact Pol Qo and Cao Chai would not be able to resist the temptation of seizing the chief city of Yi-Ti. They were right. Both the Hammer of the Jhogos Nhai and the crazy sorcerer raced to Yin, abandoning all prudence and caution.

The battle following was particularly horrible. Orange and Yellow warriors fought each other in the habitations surrounding Yin itself. Magic and steel reaped a list of casualties so bloody nobody is quite sure to this day how many humans, half-humans and monsters were there and died for putting their pretender on the Throne of Gods. The only thing which was clear at the end of the day was the death of Pol Qo, the rebel general being coated in honey and eaten alive by magical ants under Cao Chai's orders. Then the Yellow God-Emperor turned his vision in the direction of Yin, and unleashed the survivors of his army against the weakened Azure garrison. Rapidly, the Yellow soldiers created a breach and ran into the city, intending to mutilate and take their liberties with the population of the capital.

Their hopes were cruelly deceived. Out of the forests, the Azure army came back and took the forces of Cao Chai by surprise in the back. The massacre was total. General Qi Ji of the Yellow chose this time to change sides a third time, and with this defection and the extreme state of tiredness induced by the previous battle, the cause of Cao Chai was destroyed. Not that the Yellow went down quickly or easily. The blood of the civilians and the soldiers was shed in extreme quantities during two days, but in the end victory went to the Azure faction. Cao Chai, for all his pretensions of godhood, died when a loyalist wizard sent him a green flash of energy in the head, removing his head and most of his torso in the process.

The Azure leaders were victorious. Or were they? Entering the grounds of the palace to give the good news, the emissaries and diverse messengers discovered a bloodbath. The legion of eunuchs having unofficially commanded the armies were all dead, and by the appearance of things, their demise was not from yesterday but days before the battle, which led to some interesting questions to all orders received in the interval. The servants and all the persons breathing denied knowing anything. And Bu Gai, the Azure God-Emperor himself, was found murdered on his throne, the ecstatic smile associated with an excessive consumption of opium and his throat cut. Yi-Ti, the greatest empire of the known world, was now leaderless, at the very moment decisive leadership was required to counter a demonic invasion.

Not every of hope of salvation with the razing of Yin, though. Wai Liu, a distant of cousin of Bu Gai, had recovered the legendary sword the Night's Fang, long-thought lost in the imperial vaults. With the last armies of Yi-Ti, the man who was going to be decades later recognised as the Prince Who Was Promised was going to lead the survivors against the demons of the Long Night and try to gain back the Dawn.

And he was not alone. From the mountain of corpses created and the destroyed capital, six unlikely heroes would emerge and follow him in a desperate quest to save their homeland and Essos.

Qi Ji, the Uncertain. The only general to have served the three God-Emperor pretenders, and managed to keep his head every time.

Lan Mu, the Blue Dragoness. A former courtesan, famed for her body perfection, now renowned to have a number of kill in the hundreds and as many victories as lovers commanding armies.

Yu Fei, the Buffoon. Completely unpredictable, a soldier able to astound everyone by his random acts of genius and his blunders.

Guo Zhong, the Cheater. The only card-player to have ever won a Yi-Tish legion to its own generals.

Sun Bin, the Strategist. One of the rare eunuchs of Yin loyal and competent, unfortunately ignored in the first stages of the war for these very reasons and having 'miraculously' avoided the fate of his fellow councillors.

Sun San, the Bloody Flower. The last daughter of a Prince sworn to the Azure Cause, rumoured to bath in the blood of her defeated enemies.

Together, these five men and two women would try to link with the Jhogos Nhai mustering and repulse the tides of fire coming to consume humanity.

But in the end, could the Yi-Tish really trust this Wai Liu? No matter the extenuating circumstances involved, it was him after all who had assassinated the God-Emperor...


	86. Hunting Dreadwing

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the dragons, the Iron Islands or the Long Night.

raw666: Well, there are some millions of people in Yi-Ti. A lot will die, but short of total defeat and transform the continent into a magma lake, some are going to survive.

For the moment while the war against the Others is raging, nobody in the Last Alliance leadership is willing to slay Daenerys dragons. They have no good counter against the one mounted by the night's Queen after all. The Mother of Dragons is going to receive quite a few unpleasant truths before the end. But the first to speak won't be Edmure.

X59: Yep. Prophecies are notoriously hard to discover the true interpretation, so I felt it would be a nice twist if one of them was essentially correct...except it was about another Great Enemy.

For the Shrykes, weirdly I didn't think about Word of Warcraft but about another fantasy book I read a few years ago. It seems there are plenty of works describing this type of enemies, how the world is small...

Guest: Thoros of Myr is at the head of a reduced Brotherhood, yes, though it is a remnant of what it is once was...

The Stark in the North: No, no, the Prince Who Was Promised and Azor Ahai are two completely different persons.

ProCannonFodder: Thanks! I knew someone would appreciate having the confirmation two major characters survived the trials to come...

skipper 1337: Ha, ha, ha. Was I that obvious in my inspirations? Perhaps...But yeah, bad guys often don't start thinking they will do really evil things. Of course the road to Hell is paved with good intentions...

I have picked a lot of potential from the Lord of the Rings, of course. Some are less evident. I took a few possibilities from Gemmel books and other fantasy masterpieces. Thanks for the support!

Eduard Kassel: No, Wai Liu is not God-Emperor. By tradition, a majority of the princes would have to acclaim him...and given the state of chaos in Yi-Ti, no one is quite sure how many of these nobles still live. For the moment, no God-Emperor.

The Ibbene's man burden, interesting idea...

The city of Carcosa is not going to survive, no. The opponents of Chai Cao have a very firm intention to erase all his creations...though they may arrive too late. I don't know for Qi Ji, but it would be appropriate.

Paul: If you go on my profile, you will see I've posted one chapter of what could be a potential departure on the Dance of the Dragons. I have a rough outline where I could go with this. I have other scenarios in my head (in fact so many of them I'm doomed to never write all of them unless I become an artificial intelligence and have three hundred years for me). I may continue with an historical format...or not. Sometimes, I have in mind to try something different.

The problem with Chai Cao is that he was a powerful sorcerer, so taking time to make him suffer was not an option. A very lethal spell when he didn't look in your direction solved the issue. Lan Mu is winning victories with armies taken from generals she has bedded. Before or after. Sometimes both. Guo Zhong wins his recruits with multiple parties of dices, cards and other luck games. His endless succession of victories at every game is a sure thing he cheats...but no one has ever managed to catch him in the act.

There will be a few countries mentioned in the next part(s) of Tales of the Long Night, yes. I did not imply I'm going to kill Bran's party. At least I don't remember telling that. Their fate will be revealed...in time and place.

Qohor will be revisited before the end, as will many of other places...by some unsurprising characters.

Good points concerning Jaime, ones I have indeed taken into account for the 'meeting at Riverrun'.

 **Hunting Dreadwing**

 **The Seven Kingdoms in the Darkness Part II**

" _By the Old and New Gods, Dreadwing must perish. So I swear_." Anonymous Westerosi hunter, 301AC.

" _It is no ordinary hunt. We are the prey. The dragon is the predator_." Acting-Maester Qyburn, 301AC.

" _No. I will not die like this, struggling to breathe. If I have to die, it will be fighting this draconic abomination! Outside! In a duel which will be remembered for all eternity!_ " Baelor the Fanatic, 301AC.

" _Dragon beats science. Proven_." Last words of Acting-Maester Qyburn, 301AC.

" _This is...this is...HERESY! These are the lands of your fathers and grandfathers! Generations upon generations of Ironborn have been born on these lands, drunk their fortune, built their longships and return from their reavings with hulls full of treasure, thralls and salt wives! And now you want to abandon them when the time of reckoning is at hand? This the time the Drowned God is testing our resolve and bravery! This is the time the Storm God will be fought and defeated! Those who flee will never be welcomed in the halls beyond the sea! This is a time to be strong, not weak and cowardly!_ " Drowned Priest pretending to be Aeron 'the Damphair' Greyjoy, 301AC.

" _Brave fools..._ " Lord Garlan Tyrell, 301AC.

The disappearance of Lord Theon Greyjoy in the battle against Dreadwing ended in a dramatic manner all the renewal period to rebuild the Iron Islands to their pre-war situation. The situation had already been catastrophic in the first moons of the year 301AC, but it was nothing compared to the damage Euron's Folly had done. Pyke, the centuries-old capital of the archipelago, had fallen. And with its destruction and the death of the last male Greyjoy, the other islands collapsed in turn. What was left of them anyway.

Pyke in ashes, an impartial observer could remark there was not much in the Iron Islands to save. The island of Harlaw had been partially spared the dreadful events happening on the other neighbouring shores, and Blacktyde castle stood with a few unimportant locations like the Lonely Light added for good measure.

But the rest of the Ironborn former domains were bleak and burnt. On Old Wyk, Great Wyk, Orkmont and Saltcliffe, the few families and thralls which had not fled or massacred each other had tried to rebuild what the conflict had destroyed. For all intent and purposes, these efforts ceased after the Fall of Pyke. There was simply no point to them anymore. The Greyjoy and Botley holdfasts had held many of the winter clothes and supplies these men, women and children desperately needed to survive the ongoing winter. With them roasted beyond redemption by Dreadwing, it was only a matter of fortnights before starvation became the norm. Fishing with the few existing longships could meet some needs, but the seas were growing incredibly dangerous, even for intrepid sailors. And a hull was not of great utility when you wanted a roof above your head when the elements raged in the sky.

This was the final exodus. The majority of the Pyke survivors under Lord Symond Botley had been evacuated to the Cape of Eagles or Harlaw; now a new wave of transportation took place with Reach or Riverlands ships to the mainland, Harlaw possessions and Blacktyde, the latter where Lord Quellon Blacktyde and Lord Rodrik Harlaw welcomed these Ironborn exiles with pleasure, the holes in their manpower reserves being deep and cruel to say the least. Orkmont was the first major island to be emptied. Then came the Wyk islands, followed by Saltcliffe.

The last Drowned Priests alive and their limited circles of partisans did not enjoy seeing the major settlements of the Iron Islands being abandoned. Not that there were many of them after the purges ordered by King Euron Greyjoy (one of the rare positive things commonly attributed to the Pirate King). It didn't stop them from screaming on top of the cliffs that Dreadwing was a messenger of the Storm God, and only the benediction of the Drowned God could save them from the apocalyptic reptile and the winter to come. Should the Ironborn remain Faithful, enough wealth to damn a holy man would be awarded to them in the halls of the Drowned God. Eventually.

Sadly for the Priests and their speeches, the Ironborn departing from their ancestral shores were less gullible and fanatic than the ones having reigned years ago. Where in decades pasts, these oratory performances may have been sufficient to force a few thousand people to stay on faith alone, now almost none stopped to listen. Of course it did not help the same promises had been made before at the kingsmoot.

In vain, the religious parties begged their former crowd of supporters to reconsider. The Ironborn had had enough of death and massacre, especially when they were the victims of the murders and the butchery and not the actors. There was also the massive threat of Dreadwing. After having ravaged Pyke and Lordsport, the maleficent beast had been seen licking wounds and recovering in the ruined possessions of House Goodbrother on Great Wyk. It was good for the short-term, the dragons killing no more humans while it was there. But no one was stupid to believe Euron's Folly would stay there eternally. When it left, the graves of nearby living humans would be lit in an inferno. Better to leave while it was feasible.

It was a period of rude propaganda reversals for the servants of the Drowned God. In spite of several Priests pretending to be the Damphair Aeron Greyjoy or reincarnations of the locally famous and infamous Drowned Priest thorough Greyjoy and Hoare history, their faith had finally extinguished all its credit and reputation. In some cases, it was a peaceful separation between the non-believers and the Drowned. But in the majority of the departures, matters turned violent, and more than one Drowned Priest willing to force his brethren to stay ended with a pointed weapon in his back or was thrown into the black waves. Five 'Aeron' pretenders emerged only to disappear when it became obvious being related to Balon Greyjoy was clearly not the best way to rally people to their banners or lack thereof. Lord Rodrik 'the Reader' Harlaw imprisoned the others in the dungeons of Ten Towers.

On the mainland at the same moment the preparations were readied for the retaliation. The Last Alliance may have been originally formed to combat the White Walkers and the armies of the Second Long Night, but now there was another enemy concentrating the ire of the Westerosi. The Reach forces of Ser Garth 'Greysteel' Hightower and Lord Garlan Tyrell had a long list of reasons to want Dreadwing dead yesterday for the damage it had caused to Highgarden and other Reach castles. Lady Asha Greyjoy and the surviving Ironborn had their own motives of revenge against the fire-breathing lizard. And the other human forces available were realist enough to know 'leaving an uncontrollable dragon in your backyard' was one of the worst ideas ever.

Rapidly, an expedition was mounted from Casterly Rock and Seagard, with the approval of the Kings and generals in charge of the war against the Others coming soon after. The black dragon had to be brought down before it did more damage. At all costs. On the other hand, with the tens of thousands troops mustered in the North, the ability to send large armies to the Iron Islands did not exist. Nor was it reasonable to be honest. Dreadwing had proven more than able at the Doom of Kings to incinerate heavy cavalry and heavy infantry by the hundreds. A straight and massive charge had infinitesimal odds of success. No, if a means to strike down the beast existed it would have to be at long range. Siege engines and various models of ballista and trebuchets being naturally cumbersome and not practical, it was archers who would have to be mobilised to strike down the fearsome nightmare taking the form of a dragon.

That was where the problems began. The strategy decided had a good chance to limit the number of casualties for this whole operation, especially when Acting-Maester Qyburn confirmed Lord Theon Greyjoy last shot had indeed created a weakness in Dreadwing's armour after having questioned lengthily the survivors' accounts. But that left the problem of finding volunteers. Knights, sworn swords, common men-at-arms or smallfolk levied recently to fight the forces of the Night, every soldier this side of the Sunset Sea bleached listening the descriptive of the mission. When Lady Asha Greyjoy and Lord Garlan asked for volunteers, none stepped forward. Hunting a monster of the Seven Hells was preferable to that, and less risky to boot.

The potential recompenses for the dragon slayer had to be upped. Ten thousand gold dragons, a lordship, a bow in gold, the assurance to be invited at every archery tourney of renown for the next decades, a marriage...the range of awards was not avaricious in opportunities. But the fear of Dreadwing was still a dark cloud over the audacious seekers of glory. When the galleys _Deep Sound_ and Loyal _Anchor_ left respectively Casterly Rock and Seagard for Great Wyk, three hundred and twenty bowmen, crossbowmen and long-range warrior specialists were aboard. And to reach this number, the Southern and Western commanders had had to bargain hard. Northerners, Riverlanders, Westerners, Ironborn, Essossi sellswords, Reachers, Dornish, Stormlanders. No source of hypothetical recruits had been neglected. To lead this disparate group was Acting-Maester Qyburn, whose deranging experiences on humans and animals alike had finally manage to disgust the sternest Ironborn.

Among these three hundred and twenty one men, very few names had left their marks in one way or another in Westerosi history before volunteering for this apparent suicide mission. Acting-Maester Qyburn was perhaps the most infamous of all, followed by Torrh the Mad, a Northern archer who had stayed a bit too long on the ramparts of the capital during the Battle of the Four Armies and killed scores of surrendering Poor Fellows afterwards. There was Nael the Lucky, one of the rare Ironborn having managed to fight several battles in the North, the West and the Reach, and survive to speak about it. Kaerys the White Scorpion, a Dornish archer known for covering its arrowheads with poison of said animal. And last but not least, Baelor the Fanatic, a former Reach septon who had decided the way of the prayers was not for him after the Ironborn destroyed his village and that it was better to 'educate' the nobles and smallfolk alike by penetrating their skulls with a crossbow bolt.

The diverse personalities of this group doomed it, there's no doubt about it. Contrary to the Last Alliance army, which had the advantage of having its opponent right in front of them, the archer force could not see the dragon, Great Wyk being a very mountainous island and the storms delivering heavy rains that made impossible any sort of long-range visibility. Except the Vale, every part of the Seven Kingdoms was represented, and many of these warriors were veterans holding grudges against their companions of fortune.

Moreover, the climate didn't help things, forcing the marchers to consume more of their supplies than it had been thought, so much that the return travel promised to be particularly problematic. Bows and crossbows also needed particular care, and the fighters were forced to take additional measures to ensure their weapons were at their best state of function. Dreadwing didn't help things, changing from cave or any other place offering shelter for a huge representative of its species nearly every day.

As the three hundred plus warriors were seeing their adventure in the Iron archipelago pass from gallivanting to a nightmare of mud and rain, the Westerlands were concluding the War of the Eight Kings to something vaguely approaching an agreement. After a brief period of success, the Brother of Hound was meeting huge difficulties to supply and help the thousands of smallfolk it had gathered. 'Steal the Rich, Feed the Poor!' was an impressive battlecry, but in reality the Southern Westerlands were less and proving to have the capacity to feed or shelter hundreds of families. Half a dozen holdfasts from minor lords had been confiscated from their legitimate owners in the lands between Cornfield and Silverhill, but it wasn't enough. The Lannister remnants were meeting large problems too. After having fled Crakehall, Ser Daven Lannister and his last troops as well as hundreds of men, women and children had settled east in the dark hills formerly belonging to House Broom and House Yew. A not very hospitable area in the middle of summer with violent winds, rocky soil and dangerous animals preying upon the domesticated animals. A land to avoid as best as possible when winter came. In short, both of those groups greatly needed resources to see the next year.

On the other hand, Ser Daven Lannister and his last lieutenants were not ready to treat with the new masters of Casterly Rock or help each Sandor Clegane's cause like that. The deeds of the Ironborn against House Lannister were particularly bitter, and the Brotherhood of the Hound's leadership had had heavy recompenses placed on their heads by the golden-haired lords before Lady Asha ejected them from their impregnable citadel. Thus, the negotiations went in an indirect manner, Asha Greyjoy negotiating with the Hound for supplies and protection in the Crakehall and Greenfield castles, while the Lannisters took refuge in Crane and Oakheart villages under the protection of Lady Arwyn Oakheart.

This help had a cost, however. The non-fighters were under a sworn vow of living unmolested for the rest of winter, but if the Hounds and the Lannister wanted this armistice and the food help to continue, they would have to officially join the Last Alliance and go fight the White Walkers. In the end, this proposition was accepted. Over a hundred Lannister fighter and two hundred members of the Brotherhood of the Hound started the travel leading them to the great battles of the era. So did one thousand and five hundred Ironborn under Lady Asha Greyjoy. The third wave of reinforcements for the Last Alliance was on its way, with plenty of Riverlanders and Westerners like Lord Adam Marbrand bolstering further the numbers.

On Great Wyk, things were definitely less endearing. The hunter party had finally discovered Dreadwing. Or to be more accurate, the black dragon had noticed their search attempts and decided the game wasn't funny anymore. As the Westerosi and Essossi warriors camped outside the ravaged castle of Corpse Lake, Dreadwing attacked. With low clouds, few wind and a morning fog, the beast came completely unopposed in range. In one second, forty or fifty men were killed. In a single pass. Not an arrow had been fired in anger. The start of the battle had been too sudden. The second pass was as murderous as the first, although this one the humans shot back...in pure loss. Dreadwing had obviously become more skilled at avoiding arrows due to the various misfortunes having befallen it in the last moons, and the inferno unleashed carbonised Acting-Maester Qyburn and thirty other men.

Kaerys the White Scorpion and Baelor the Fanatic took command and hid in the lower levels of the Corpse Lake fortress, trying to establish a plan. In the mean time, the dragon born of the evil and abominable acts of the Crow's Eye made a carnage. By this point, over two hundred and fifty men were dead and their bestial executioner had not been touched once in return. Corpse Lake was truly earning its name, in a morbid sort of irony.

Once everyone outside the castle was dead, Dreadwing passed to the aerial bombardment of the destroyed castle. Baelor the Fanatic made an impressive speech and sallied out with three scores of warriors and was burnt to death in three quarters of an hourglass's turn.

It was the end of the hunt. There were barely eleven men alive under the mortar and the stones of the Iron Islands, half of them were wounded and the stock of arrows not burnt had greatly diminished. The black dragons continued to deliver columns of flames, making the air unbreathable.

The final blow never came. The maleficent lizard was turning for another pass, when it suddenly pushed a strident scream and abandoned its continued attacks against the humans and departed.

The most logical explanation was that something else had attracted the dragon's attention. The issue with this was that the eleven survivors saw nothing susceptible to do this. Great Wyk was deserted, the coast was clear. No, whatever factor had sent Dreadwing elsewhere was not on this island.

The answers would come in the futures days...but raise several more intriguing questions.

It was impossible for Dreadwing to have heard Drogon roaring at Riverrun. The same was true for the ice lizards of the Night's Queen landing on the Vale northern coast. Dragon hearing was good, but not perfect to hear a noise half a continent away. Unless the magic having birthed the dark creature had given it additional capacities to know when member of its own species flew over the Westerosi lands?

But in a way, did it matter? Avoiding the arrows of the men who had been sent to kill him, Dreadwing soared in the sky of Great Wyk before rushing eastwards with the speed of a dark storm.

To fulfil its dark destiny once more...


	87. Fallen Orders

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Faith, the Maester Order or the factions which go with them.

 **Important Note:** For a reason unknown to me, the site doesn't accept files in docx format anymore. I was forced to put it in .txt...and I absolutely hated it, it's simply not practical. This chapter will be re-updated as soon as the owners of fanfiction have corrected this HUGE problem.

raw666: Thanks very much for the compliments!

X59: Yes, hunting dragon is not exactly a safe job. You can't say it doesn't raise your life expectancy...

Blood magic played a role for Dreadwing, that and others...factors...that will be revealed next week.

Paul: Don't fear, Black Dawn is going to reappear before the end. Garlan Tyrell is officially 'Lord of Brightwater Keep' since the Florent were accused of betrayal. It's a rather nebulous point at the moment given Stannis first marriage to Selyse, but it will be resolved after the war.

Glad you liked Qyburn's last words. Yes, all the male Greyjoys are dead, including Quenton and Dagon. I believed I had them killed before, but if not, you can take it as a confirmation.

Euron's would be rolling in his grave if he had one. As it is, his corpse was mutilated, burnt and dispersed to the four winds. No need to take any chance with the Crow's Eye...

The maester of House Goodbrother survived, because he was too valuable for any sides (particularly the healing part). House Goodbrother as a whole...didn't. There may be some survivors, but they are exiled on the Cape of Eagles.

The rest of the infamous archers died against Dreadwing, alas. For many, luck was not with them when they faced the monster...

As for the planning of the rest of the story...next one will be in the Riverlands, then in the Shivering Sea/Bite. Normally, the one after will be the Vale. But I may change the order if something that has escaped me comes to mind.

In the short term, no one is going to govern the Iron Islands. In the long-term, Asha will probably retain the overlordship while Rodrik Harlaw does the day-to-day job. Yes, Waldon Wynch is dead. Like nearly all Euron supporters, supporting Euron was not a move giving long life...

Have you seen Horas Redwyne in the books? The character is perhaps one of the main examples of what is wrong with the Reach chivalry (and perhaps of what is about to happen in the Winds of Winter).

Some thralls tried to change sides when the Iron Fleet abandoned them at Meereen. But unless it was before the general surrender and the theft of the dragons, it was not generally accepted. Daenerys and her advisors had started to learn their lessons about informants and traitors...

 **Fallen Orders**

 **The Seven Kingdoms in the Darkness Part III**

" _We will build a library here. One which will put the one of the Citadel to shame._ " Sarella Sand, 301AC.

" _For science and magic!_ " Archmaester Marwyn, 301AC.

" _Ravens and maesters would have been useful in the war for the Dawn...alas the number of maesters available was quite low that year. And the ravens froze in the cold. So much for science._ " Lord Leyton Hightower, 302AC.

 _"If you confess in a northern sept, does that mean you are pardoned in the Reach?_ " Interested Reach outlaw, 301AC.

When King Robert had held his last breath, a death which had broken the unstable balance of power in Westeros and unleashed the War of the Eight Kings for tens of thousands humans, there had been two major orders spread thorough the Seven Kingdoms.

The first had been religious in nature. The Faith of Seven.

The second was into the scientific and knowledge-gathering category. The Maester Order.

By 301AC, these two institutions were crumbling and collapsing under the storm of the monumental events happening. The Faith of course, had been the first of the two to shatter, one of the many consequences the carnage before, during and after the Battle of the Four Armies brought with it.

The High Septon Justicar was dead, and while no one having the smallest degree of sanity regretted this fanatic, the problems created by his death at the hands of Tyrion Lannister's axe were particularly huge. The capital had burnt in a wildfire conflagration, making all but impossible for the pilgrims and Faithful to come pray at the Great Sept of Baelor. All the Most Devout had perished. The higher levels of the Faith hierarchy were no longer of this world. The Faith had been all but decapitated, its reputation ruined.

However, it was still possible that the Faith could have managed to climb back to its former glory united. In a time where armies committed uncountable atrocities, the lords battled one another for their bloody conflicts, magic was back and monsters marched again the Westerosi lands, it would not have been that complicated for a well-implanted religious order to gather significant support and call for a crusade against the Others and the Ironborn.

Alas, this optimism was missing critical steps. Like the point that after the Battle of the Four Armies and the sheer amount of destruction it spread, no knight or lord, no matter how enthusiast their adherence to the Faith, was willing to rearm the Poor Fellows or to allow them to have a minor amount of support in military adventures. It was hard to tolerate fanatics at the best of times; after the numerous sacks and exterminations having taken place in the Riverlands and elsewhere, negotiating with the extreme elements was out of the question. The White Walkers were bad enough, no need to add a mob of bloodthirsty priests and smallfolks to the list of issues. Fifteen attempts were made in the Reach to rearm the Fellows; each was broken in blood and tears. There was also the hate of magic no matter the source. Granted the actions of Melisandre of Asshai had not helped, but many Red Priests and wildling wargs would fight and die for the Dawn, a point Faith fanatics were all too rapid to forget.

A new High Septon had been named of course. The city of Oldtown had always been a bastion of the Faith, and the assault of the Crow's Eye had not touched the Septs (not because of any piety in the Pirate King but probably because the magical artefacts of the Citadel interested him more). As the religious living there had long memories of the insult suffered when the Targaryen dynasty moved the heart of their Faith to King's Landing, what followed was predictable. At the Starry Step, seven Most Devout were elected, four men and three women. In turn, the new leaders elected a new High Septon.

The Faith had a new leader. Soon, the Most Devout declared, proper order was going to be restored.

Even with no hindsight, this was pretty naive. The War of the Eight Kings had been no minor rebellion or uprising; it had been a continent-spanning conflict, with Kings of different religions at the head of the major factions. King Robb Stark was a follower of the Old Gods and King Stannis Baratheon had converted to R'hllor, to quote the most striking examples. And of those who had been crowned by a representative of the Seven, only King Renly Baratheon had received this acclamation from a septon of Oldtown. Aegon VI had been crowned at Sunspear by the septon of the castle in question, Joffrey I and Tommen I had received the acclamations of the High Septon at King's Landing. Rallying to a religious man of an enemy fact was not going to happen without a lot of obstacles, if at all.

As a matter of fact, it was the North who sounded the disunity charge shortly before the fall of the Wall. With the tacit acceptance of his Winterfell sovereign and an overwhelming majority of the Houses worshipping said religion, Lord Wyman Manderly declared White Harbor the new Faith centre of the reborn Kingdom in the North and the Trident. Getting rid of the traditions with a reverse of the hand, Lord Wyman chose a new High Septon, a Mallister priest having travelled northwards to be accurate. By all accounts, the man acquitted himself well in his duties, encouraging the defenders on the ramparts of White Harbor during the Siege of the Others, organising hot soup deliveries and paying inhabitants to augment the number of shelters for the poorest. In short, the Northern High Septon was a proud representative of a religion simpler, more generous and far more turned towards the common born than the kings and the high lords.

Far down in the South, the Most Devout and the other enriched septons and septas looked at these news with a mix of anger and disgust. With one single order, Lord Wyman Manderly had officially destroyed the (terribly weakened) unity of the Faith, bringing with him the faithful of the North, a good part of the Riverlands, and minorities in the war-torn Crownlands and the Westerlands.

The anger soon turned to horror, when it was revealed neither Prince Quentyn nor Prince Trystane in the Princedom of Dorne had septons with them which could be considered reliable or loyal to the new High Septon. At Casterly Rock, the men of the Faith of Seven had been relegated to far menial positions or executed, Lady Asha Greyjoy clearly not being willing to tolerate the greediness and the corruption of these Lannister-aligned hypocrites. Getting rid of the Drowned Men had been enough trouble on its own right, the Ironborn didn't want to replace them by another unreliable group.

At Storm's End, Queen Margaery Baratheon chose this moment to convince Princess Shireen and the Hand Ser Richard Horpe to name their own temporary High Septon until the emergency was over. It was a very popular move among the Stormlords faithful who had stayed at home...and instantly decreased the religious authority of Oldtown east of Highgarden.

The High Septon and his Most Devout thought they were at the end of the tunnel for the problems. Soon, the tide was about to turn. It was selling the skin of the bear a bit too quickly. Like, before it was dead.

Originally discovered by a low-born septon named Luthor, it was rapidly relayed that there were some anomalies in the electoral process having led to the nomination of the Most Devout. Big anomalies. A third of the ballot boxes supposed to contain the votes were missing, and no one in the upper spheres of the Faith had any idea where they had gone. Naturally, the common smallfolk in the streets didn't believe them. And to send a bit further the situation to the Seven Hells, one of the Most Devout, described by Lord Leyton Hightower as "a pig in human clothes" tried to sweep the affair under the carpets. It didn't work.

One large riot later, two septs were severely damaged, the High Septon was now a eunuch and three of the Most Devout had had their skulls bashed in the gutters of the Hightower city. The city guard had limited itself to defend the citizens and the blocks near the septs, but the leaders of the Faith had been temporarily abandoned to their fate, and suffered in consequence.

The next months of the year 301AC would see a proper religious stability restored before the Battle of the Last Alliance, but was no great recovery to the glory the Faith had enjoyed before. And soon events would spread which would threaten this fragile edifice.

At least the Faith had a leadership of sorts at Oldtown, to see things from a positive view. The same thing could not be said for the Maesters. The majority of the grey robes senior members were hung by ropes at the place where executions of criminals happened, and the rest had divided into small groups, each taking some books and founding a guild or a meeting group in different quarters of the city depending on their origins.

All care for the fate of those who had departed with Archmaester Marwyn and their members thorough the disintegrating provinces had long ceased. It had gotten so bad it was House Hightower personal retinue of maesters which was ensuring the raven network continued to work, until a new solution could be envisaged. In fact one of the most noteworthy actions came from former students in a tavern named (unoriginally) the Drunk Sailor.

It was there a former prostitute of Fleabottom having survived the Battle of the Four Armies had taken refuge, working as a modest server and plus if affinities. One evening, according to the legend, when one particularly drunk student asked her for one song, the young woman improvised one on the heroic acts of Tyrion Lannister. Now, given the fact the performance was based on rumours and hearsay, which had to be added to the colossal quantity of ale, wine and beer drunk thorough the evening, the story could have stopped here and there. But in the audience had been Allos Flowers, bastard of a cadet branch of the Hightowers, and the former apprentice was fascinated by the story, and decided to investigate with his limited resources. Two evenings later, Allos sang the first verses of _The Ballad of Tyrion Lannister_ at the Drunk Sailor.

Success was so immediate the men who heard it decided to rename the tavern the Drunk Dwarf on the spot. Unknown to him, Allos had created the seeds of a move which was going to leave an impressive mark in history. A flame which is still burning hot today, and all the main participants have all passed away a long time ago.

Despite this amusing anecdote, not everyone had waited for the former renowned masters of knowledge and science to get to work. At the time his former colleagues were accused of incompetence, treason and a few other capital crimes, Archmaester Marwyn students were already taking steps to build the equivalent of the new Citadel. On their own terms. And the amount of preparations was confirmation enough this was not a plan thought in mere days, but well a long strategy defined and developed over the next decade. Possibly before Crown Prince Rhaegar had that unfortunate meeting with the Baratheon warhammer on the Trident.

At Summerhall, the former summer residence of House Targaryen, the deserters of the order were starting building their own headquarters.

Archmaester Marwyn had realised from the start that his new doctrine would not be popular in the Reach, no matter the crimes of the other Archmaesters. Marwyn was too old, had a reputation of a sorcerer, whoremonger and a lot of adjectives best not repeated in public.

But the Stormlands? Victorious over the Reach, the Baratheon line was busy consolidating their victory and annexing everything east of Cider Hall in their private backyard. From this perspective, having their own order of Maesters to consult could only be considered a very good thing. And to sweeten the deal to Princess Shireen and the other powerful women at Storm's End, Marwyn had chosen Sarella Sand, illegitimate daughter of Oberyn Martell to lead this one-sided reformation.

The initial collections of the Summerhall archives were of course not the endless labyrinthine library they grew to the present day and which are of course the subject of countless rumours (specifically the three Forbidden Books that are the _Omens of the Dolorous_ , _Whispers of the Night_ and _Chronicles of the Enemy_ ). But it was a start.

With about fifty students, four to five hundred books and the help of many smallfolk seeking a better life, the Historian Order was born in the Marches, and would in the next decades come to challenge the Maester old monopoly on science and knowledge. Hand of the King Ser Richard Horpe closely supervised the project, and would be confirmed in 303AC as Lord of Summerhall.

The rest of the maesters in the realm fared generally less well. In the North, the famed Maester Luwin had laid somewhat the foundations of a new order which would bore fruit after the Second Long Night, but in-between, no new faction emerged. A significant majority of the maesters located in the Riverlands, Crownlands and Westerlands looked either north or south, but never chose to build a Citadel of their own.

At least there was no open armed revolt or mass of assassination attempts coming from the members of the increasingly defunct order. The scholars were not the Faith, and had too long been isolated from all the parts of the Westerosi society save the nobility. Okay, the upper nobility. Knights knowing a reverse of fortune could not afford the services of a maester, when their reserves of money had to be used to feed themselves and their liege men.

Perhaps the Vale and the Crownlands could have provided alternatives. But both Gulltown and King's Landing had suffered too much damage to play that role, and there were no other great cities in these kingdoms for the short-term. Moreover, the invasion of the White Walkers would soon take all priority in the former case and the arrival of Daenerys Targaryen for the latter.

Overall, the ancient orders having stood for millennia fell in this chaotic period, creating more uncertainty as the dark clouds of the Long Night advanced and the Others rose thousands of wights to extinguish humanity. No one in that era could have predicted the outcome of this war. But every lord having a minimum of intelligence knew that returning to the pre-war situation was going to be the next best thing to impossible...


	88. Judgment Day

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Faith, the Maester Order or the factions which go with them.

raw666: Thanks!

X59: Yes, I try my best to ensure each action has a consequence. Of course, the realism requires a lot of planning beforehand but it's worth it.

Eduard Kassel: Margaery has ambitions going in that direction, yes. For too long the Faith has found its seat at Oldtown for the Reach, and trying to move it is a good way to weaken the Hightower power base. The South is becoming more progressive towards feminism, though it is in part because so many men have died or are gone to war.

Concerning Edd's words, the greatest silence is ordered...

melubarv: Don't laugh, the Great Luwin Academy may emerge from the ground (grin). The North will be in some ways like Dorne. But they have their own customs and culture, First Men and not Rhoynar, which makes the other comparisons rather awkward.

Bran is somewhere beyond the Wall, learning with a certain three-eyed raven...

Istariol: Believe it or not, but I was referring to another American presidential election where votes had to be recounted. For what it's worth, yes I am fond of the man candidate in the Democrat race. A wind of fresh air (not like the Others!)...

Paul: Yeah, Wyman's chosen High Septon is a more popular choice. The Manderlys want their customers to be satisfied after all. The Brotherhood is going to reappear...I hope it will be surprising to everyone.

Nael the Lucky deserted before the battle at Highgarden. No one survived on the longship courtesy of Dreadwing, and the Reach soldiers weren't exactly happy and cheering after seeing Euron's horrors...

I didn't mention the fate of every archer who died, but yes Kaerys rushed outside to his death. The High Septon was castrated partly because many believed he rigged the votes (by the way they're correct), partly because a lot of influential people found his carnal appetites disgusting. Quite a few refugees have left Oldtown to try their fortune in war-untouched Reach provinces, but a large minority stayed in the city, as they simply have no possessions or money to go elsewhere.

Allos Flowers started something big, stay tuned. Justin Massey would have been a disaster as the Lord of Summerhall, I think we can all agree on this. He's not exactly the librarian kind...

As for the Greyjoys demise, they were among the men who perished in the Battles in the South, one at the Arbor, the other at Oldtown. Euron of course arranged to send them every time to suicide missions, it was only a matter of time before they died.

Roose Bolton...I have not decided if I will kill him or not. Good ideas for 'the end', but Ii have already chosen how I want to finish this part of the story, and it won't end with the death of Lord Stevron Frey.

thepkrgmc: Thanks for all these reviews. Courageous of you to read all my stories in three days!

Guest: Alas, it was the wrong dragons which arrived on time...

 **Judgment Day**

 **The Seven Kingdoms in the Darkness Part IV**

" _Is there no one to rid us of this truculent dragon Queen?_ " Lord Edmure Tully, 301AC.

" _Tyrion faced a dragon. My little brother faced a dragon and won. What sort of brother and knight would I be if I refuse to face one?_ " Ser Jaime Lannister, 301AC.

" _Great malice is indistinguishable from great stupidity_." Ser Justin Massey, 301AC.

" _There is a human word for what we have assisted. A miracle_." Ser Brynden 'the Blackfish' Tully, 301AC.

Between the departure of the Lannister army led by Lord Tywin Lannister and the Battle of the Four Armies, something akin to peace had come back to the Riverlands. The threats facing lords and smallfolk alike were not over, but at least there was not the constant threat of an enemy army coming at any moment raping and murdering your village or your fort. For too many families, it was too late, courtesy of the monster known as Gregor 'the Mountain' Clegane and his sinister master, the Lord of Casterly Rock. For hundreds of smallfolk who had lost everything and had no refuge to find for the terrible and long winter, the end of the Eight King's War did not cease in time. But for the rest, it offered a hope of survival and better days.

Furthermore, with the Westerlands crumbling under the Northern and Ironborn assaults, the Reach dealing with its internal and external difficulties and the Crownlands losing their capital city, no one had the time or the motivation to invade again this kingdom. For the first time in decades, the Riverlands were in the eye of the storm.

The Lannisters and their western bannersmen had done a horrifying amount of carnage and butchery, but the livestock and the gold claimed back in the first invasion led by King Robb Stark helped mitigate the damage. Then the harvests from Essos came, bought with the gold of Casterly Rock. The materials desperately needed to rebuild started to arrive piece-meal, men returned from the forest they had hidden or from the battlefields. A slow, hard and painful rebuilding progressively began thorough the Riverlands.

But the Second Long Night did not care about the improvement of humanity. The cold winds of winter flew, and with it the first signs of the influence of the Others. Soon enough, as the White Walkers defeated the Braavosi Navy and came southwards, the first magical events were recorded in the Riverlands. Snow falling in certain patterns, creating large snowdrift on roads, but only feet of snow two leagues away. Temperatures varied haphazardly, from very cold to nightmarish, with the beings imprudent to be caught outside without the proper protections frozen to death in the space of a few breaths.

But there was worse. The corpses were no longer staying undisturbed in their graves, instead they were now rising from their resting places with blue lights in their dead eyes.

Lord Edmure Tully had given the order to burn the maximum of dead bodies, in prevision of such a thing to happen. By the Lord of Riverrun's reasoning, the Faith of Seven had not made any miracles lately, thus it was time to take a page from the Northerner doctrine and burn the dead before they came back alive to murder all the living.

Diverse groups of septons of course proclaimed this as a heresy of the highest order. The Seven were the only gods of Westeros, and any sorcery coming from the others would be countered by true Andals Gods, and not those of the northern barbarians. The holy graves could not be touched by White Walkers magic. Suggesting anything else was anathema and divine treachery. End of the debate.

In the process, Lord Edmure and the various representatives of the Faith revealed to be both right...and wrong. For the first time, some lights undoubtedly generated by the Faith of Seven followers were generated around consecrated grounds, preventing wights from appearing.

The great problem was that these manifestations were by far a minority. While no evidence was ever found to support all these theories, it was the opinion of several thinkers and men of science the cemeteries were protected when a man of pure and dedicated faith consecrating the resting place for the dead. It had a drawback. Overall, no protection formed when a hurried and faithless job had been done. Nor was any magical protection awarded for the thousands of bodies which had not been found in the diverse lordships of the Riverlands.

Fortunately, the influence and the reach of the Others in the Riverlands was still quite limited. As horrifying was the event of a human meeting an undead abomination in snowy conditions, the effectives of the wights in the region stayed by a large margin below the level of the hordes having attacked the Wall and the North. The number of wights together was commonly under twenty, and there were no White Walkers to control them. The encounters between knights and dead thralls ended in the quasi-totality in victory for humanity. The group of Red Priests carrying Lightbringer was known to have fought a group of a dead bear and several scores of skeletons (annihilating them in an impressive fire wave), but this was the exception and not the rule.

But now Queen Daenerys Targaryen arrived in the Riverlands, opening a huge can of controversy which is still dividing every student of the period in a life-and-death struggle well after every man, woman and child involved has left this world for a better place. On the one hand, the Targaryen supporters, quoting each sentence of the lengthy works _The World's Liberation_ and _Breaker of Chains_ by Mistress of Whisperers Missandei as saint and holy work.

On the other side, much hostile literature and songs were written or composed about the Mother of Dragons. Anonymous bards sang in their times the _Dragon Disaster_ and the _Fires of Wrath._ According to the rumours, half of the _Mad Sovereigns_ originated at Seagard before being disseminated in the Riverlands.

To stay objective, it's hardly likely the Mother of Dragons was the monster Baratheon propaganda insists to describe her. But neither was the Stormborn an agent of the Seven Heavens in her life as the Targaryen version represents her. The truth, as always, was certainly somewhere in between.

Limiting oneself to the facts, it is an accepted fact Queen Daenerys Targaryen after her arrival to King's Landing flew directly on top of Drogon through the Riverlands, with her first remarkable stop at Harrenhal. Until there, her passage to every holding of note was followed by a declaration of allegiance, no one wishing for the dragon to demonstrate how hot dragonfire could be when it melted the stones of a castle.

But at Harrenhal, Queen Daenerys miscalculated. Badly. Not in terms of military resistance, no. The fortress built by Harren the Black was in fact nearly defenceless: with Frey troops gone to the Northern campaigns, only a small garrison of Riverlands infantry was supposed to guard the castle...and they were not even here, gone for the day burning three wights which had recently risen in a village east of the black citadel. Despite the relative security of the gigantic walls, the oppressing feeling one saw looking at Harrenhal was too powerful. Unless there existed no other alternative, the smallfolk and the knights chose to live in rebuilt Harrentown nearby or elsewhere. The castle granaries and supplies had been consumed long ago, further diminishing the value of the place as a winter refuge.

It was as a consequence less than a hundred men, women and children who died when Queen Daenerys Targaryen landed on top of the Kingspyre Tower. Perhaps the Mother of Dragons had decided to perch Drogon here to establish a position of awe and domination. Or it had been another reasoning that had led her there. Anyway, it didn't matter. The black stones, burnt three hundred years ago by Balerion the Black Dread, martyred by the elements, left in a state of abandon by all the Houses having owned the castle and seriously damaged by all the conquerors of the fortress, these very stones saw their cohesion ruptured by the sheer weight of a massive dragon.

The rest of the story is well-known. Under the weight of Drogon, the largest tower of Harrenhal trembled and then collapsed in a thunder roar which was heard to the skies and the deepest parts of the earth. It would have been already bad enough, but in its fall the nearby tower of the Widow went down too, the Kingspyre being simply too tall and the destruction too significant. A titanic cloud of dust formed itself. Where there had been five ruined towers, now there were three left, all showing vast and non-repairable destruction. The space between the outer walls and the towers was rubble, dust and broken stones. The high constructions had contained most of the blast, but their defensive purposes had been seriously compromised, slight cracks could be viewed from top to the foundations. Queen Daenerys entrance in the Riverlands had just finished the task started by Aegon the Conqueror.

In terms of symbolism, it could be difficultly argued the feat was hard to beat. But in terms of rumours, opinion and public image, it was a complete disaster. The Riverlords had participated in deposing the Targaryen dynasty with their liege lord Hoster Tully in Robert's Rebellion. Before this fiasco, it would have been unlikely to say the least that the lords of the Trident would bend the knee to the Stormborn. Afterwards, ' as soon as the Seven Hells froze over' was a good clue of their intentions.

As fate and destiny dictated it, the next stopover of the Targaryen Queen did not fare any better. The weakened castle of Darry was not in any manner able to contest the passage of a fire-breathing lizard, and the news from Harrenhal had had not the time to arrive. As a result, the Riverlands garrison was forced to surrender. It would not have been so bad, except the place had been used by King Stannis Baratheon to imprison the Dornish soldiers that the Storm King felt they could not be trusted in a battlefield. Sixty Dornish were freed, freed to disperse and fight for the cause they chose. Including Prince Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper of Dorne.

Unlike at Harrenhal, the Mother of Dragons received there an accurate picture of troop movements and a general (and partial) sum-up of the War of the Eight Kings. Leaving one destination in mind for the short-term.

Riverrun.

This time though there was no effect of surprise. Dragons may be fast, but plenty of messengers on horse, foot and ravens had dispersed alarms. Improvised chains of bonfires were already burning to destroy the wights; they were now adapted to send a great warning to the entire population of the Riverlands.

Dragon.

When Queen Daenerys Targaryen arrived at the Tully river citadel, it was to find the gates closed, plenty of siege engines on the ramparts, and scores of archers ready to take their chance at dragon-hunting. Lord Edmure Tully was not in attendance, having travelled to Wayfarer's Rest to organise the third muster of the Last Alliance and combat the wights, but his uncle the Blackfish was, and Riverrun had been put on a war status to receive the Stormborn and her mount.

The Mother of Dragons landed on the western bank, and made quickly her intentions known by the intermediary of horse-mounted messengers carrying truce banners. The young woman wanted the allegiance of Riverrun...and the head of Ser Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer. The Blackfish, veteran of multiple wars and no great admirer of the special governance practised by the Targaryen, refused.

The garbled information coming from Harrenhal was extremely confused, but added to the burning pyres and the murders of Aerys Targaryen twenty years ago, changing sides from the King in the North to the Mother of Dragons promised to be an awful choice.

Moreover, Queen Daenerys had come with a single dragon and without army. No fortress had been able in the past to resist Balerion the Black Dread, that much was true, but Drogon was younger and smaller than its counterpart, and the Doom of Kings had proven a dragon could forced to leave the battlefield if sufficiently injured.

It was not surprising the 'negotiations' turned bitter (if such a liberal term could be used, by the end of it, it was more of an insult exchange by messengers interposed) and soon the Mothers of Dragons challenged Ser Jaime Lannister to a trial of the Gods. Given that Ser Barristan Selmy and all the Essossi soldiers were far away from this location and the prowess of the Meereen Queen with a blade was less than impressive, it did not require being a genius to realise the Targaryen champion would be Drogon.

Ser Brynden Tully, all reliable witnesses agree, pressed the eldest Lannister left alive to refuse the unequal fight. "A dragon is not an enemy you can defeat." argued the Blackfish. "The walls of the Riverrun are strong. You don't have to do this, Kingslayer."

The reply of the fallen Kingsguard, written on a parchment conserved in the archives of Riverrun, stayed in the annals of history.

"Tyrion faced a dragon. My little brother faced a dragon and won. What sort of brother and knight would I be if I refuse to face one?"

The picture was one described and reproduced on countless paintings afterwards. Ser Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer, downed a black armour with the help of two squires, before advancing on the green grass surrounding the castle of Riverrun.

In front of him was Drogon, greatest of the three dragons having hatched on the Dothraki Sea. Black wings, back-scaled...and small clouds of smoke erupting from the maw, external proofs of the inferno raging in the heart of the reptile.

Had the Lannister knight being at his prime before the start of the War of the Eight Kings, he may have had a chance. One chance in a million. Dragons were truly terrifying opponents after all.

But this was here and now, Ser Jaime Lannister lacked his fighting hand (replaced by an iron one), his tongue, and had been deeply weakened by his lengthy stay in the dungeons of Riverrun. Worse, the Kingslayer also lacked the motivation simply not to perish. Apart from the western prisoners in the Riverlands, Joy Hill, Daven Lannister and Myrcella Baratheon, the once proud Lannister line which had reigned over Casterly Rock during thousands of years was on the brink of extinction.

Not exactly the most joyous circumstances before going to defy an undefeated dragon.

On a dark morning, perturbed twice by snowfalls, the fight began. It did not last long. Swift like a snake, Drogon rose in a swirl of wings before plunging on Ser Jaime Lannister and unleashing a firestorm so hot and powerful that nothing non-draconic, not even a White Walker or a kraken, could have possibly survived.

It was there the event turned magical. The inferno of black-red flames turned to gold. And in the middle of the inferno, a loud voice resonated. And while there was a tonality of the Kingslayer's voice, an impossibility given the inability of Ser Jaime to speak, the tremors had nothing human at all.

The Warrior himself, for who else it could be? Had spoken.

The words told, the thousands of witnesses assisting to this miracle were unable to remember a single one word afterwards. It had been magnificent, harden their hearts in courage and resolution, but of the sentences talked they were unable to repeat the echo.

The dragonfire flashed out, extinguished magically.

Drogon screamed of a painful roar, letting only a few seconds for his mistress to mount on its back before screaming again and racing in the sky eastwards.

Of Ser Jaime Lannister, infamous Kingsguard, son of Tywin Lannister and most notoriously known as the Kingslayer, there was no trace remaining on this earth.


	89. Against the Tide

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Faith, the Maester Order or the factions which go with them.

raw666: Thank you very much for the support.

X59: Jaime is dead. It was his death which allowed the Warrior to open a conduit into his world, by a mix of royal blood, knight oath and dragonfire...concerning the divine orders, that's going to be a surprise.

People quite often forget that Daenerys has a complete distorted view of Westeros, and in this story no one has had the courage to tell her upfront that her father was utterly mad, the Rebellion was justified throw the Targaryen off the throne and that Rhaegar was an imbecile believing too much in prophecies.

When you think about it, it's a miracle Daenerys is as sane as she is when you know what she has got through...

Paul: None. The Curse of Harrenhal does not miss. Maybe someone will raze definitely the fortress and rebuild elsewhere...the name of the Greyjoy is dying out and will soon be extinct.

Not everything happened like in the books! Euron wanted to get rid of any political opponents he possibly had, and some reavers were not fast enough to escape the kingsmoot (or had drink a bit too much beforehand).

Yep, Edmure's quote was directly inspired by a certain quote of a certain king on the subject of a certain archbishop.

The Lannisters who were not mentioned are isolated in the North, and with the siege of Winterfell no one knows if they are still alive. Plus Jaime wasn't that close to them.

I was not satisfied about a lot of things concerning House Bolton in the show (except Ramsay's death). The future of House Bolton and House Frey is going to be delicate, but I don't think I need to sink to the level of Game of Thrones.

thepkrgmc: Thanks for the review! Yes, there are going to be other manifestations of the Seven, although whether they will be very useful remains to debate...

Magnetar23: Daenerys has inherited a few grudges from Viserys sub-par education...Jaime was at the top of the list, and with Tyrion and House Lannister gone, not much reasons to refuse.

The Other was indeed a reverse version of the Hound's escape. There are some differences of course.

The smallfolk opinion on the lords will greatly vary on a case-per-case basis. Quite a few gave away everything to win and protect their homes, and it will be remembered. For others, there will be darkest tomorrows...

yesboss21: Indeed that one of the main reasons the Last Alliance is trying to stop the White Walkers before they come to the more populated areas. With so many dead, the Others would be for all intent and purposes invincible...

Guest:

 **Against the Tide**

 **Battles of the Shivering Sea Part II**

" _If you want to prove you're not a coward, you will be the first man to receive the White Walkers on the shores, Lord Torrent_." Commander Jon Snow, 301AC.

" _One more victory like this, and I will come back alone to Dorne._ " Lord Anders Yronwood, 301AC.

" _It seems we are going to dance with the dragons. Again_." Anonymous Night's Watch survivor, 301AC.

" _Why is it heroes are always so badly outnumbered_?" Lord Rickard Karstark, 301AC.

The Braavosi navy defeated, the main obstacle preventing the White Walker army from going southwards had been removed.

However, it was clearly not enough for the Night's Queen. The fearful leader of the Land of Always Winter had learnt from her mistakes, and this time she would not leave enemies in her back alive and able to plan her demise. King Robb Stark and his soldiers had been able to take refuge in the Dreadfort and plan their counter-attack; this error would not be repeated.

The main forces of the Last Alliance in the North being out of reach and anyway not having the skill to walk on water (unless of course it was frozen beforehand), the greatest threats on the flanks left were the Three Sisters and Braavos itself, while the Paps and Pebble island miniscule obstacles.

First, the Three Sisters. Ruled by House Sunderland with House Borrel, Longthorpe and Torrent as bannersmen, the small archipelago at the entrance of the Bite benefitted from the support of the Manderly navy, and five thousand men drawn from the humans musters fighting the Others. Combined with the Essossi sellswords transported to Westeros and diverted there, as well as the Sistermen themselves, the Last Alliance had managed to gather seven thousand men give it or take.

This was far from sufficient, and the commanders present on this theatre, Jon Snow, Jon 'Smalljon' Umber and Lord Alesander Staedmon, were well aware of it. If any sizeable citadel had been built on the Sisters and the sum of lands to defend being concentrated on one island, maybe. It was not the case. Sisterton did not hold a candle to even a minor castle like Widow's Watch at its height, and now everything was falling into disrepair, one of the many consequences the Manderlys fighting against piracy and smuggling had in the Bite and the Northern coasts.

In this light, the decision of abandoning Longsister and Littlesister to their fates was awful, but understandable, no matter what the saloon generals of today imagine with unrealistic arguments. The Alliance could try to hold three islands, and certainly lose the three; or increase their efforts on one island, with much better chances of fending off the assaults of the abomination. As for why Sweetsister and not one of the other two islands, the reasoning was rather simple. Sweetsister was the most populated island of the three, which meant more wights to fight should the Others emerge victorious, and it had the most important keeps, no matter how small, frail and weak such fortifications were compared to the might of a castle like the Golden Tooth or Runestone. Logic dictated Longsister would only be attacked after the battle for Sweetsister was over. For Littlesister, the only thing possible was to evacuate the maximum of refugees...and pray the ice warriors bypassed them for more important battlefields.

This did not happen. Not only the White Walkers had decided that utter annihilation of humanity was one of their sacred duties, the efforts of House Torrent were rushed, attracted too much attention, and generally ignored all common rules of knightly conduct, like sending the women and the children first away. To sum-up clearly, everyone who had a boat and the knowledge to sail away tried to do it. And yes, that number included Lord Alesandor Torrent, a man in his forties who abandoned his lands and his vassals without a care in the world.

Unfortunately for Lord Torrent, his embarkation was intercepted by a Manderly galley while he was on his way to the southern part of the Bite, with the obvious intention to flee to the Riverlands.

Thus Alesandor Torrent, while his wife and his two daughters were sent to White Harbour, received the dangerous honour from Jon Snow to be the first man to greet the White Walkers on the shore of Sweetsister. Along his eldest son and four of his cousins.

Indeed, Littlesister had not resisted long to the wave of wights rushing from a massive iceberg. The assault of Skagos and the sparsely inhabited Wildling and Northern coasts had brought tens of thousands corpses, and even if the majority were reserved for the future assault on the Vale, the rest formed a very high number in absolute.

Between fourteen and sixteen thousand, according to the most conservative estimations of the time.

The eastern island, with barely one hundred men to form a garrison and a single tower, had not a chance in the Seven Hells. And the desertion of its lord when the enemy was not in view had not done wonders for the moral. Not it would have changed anything, as this time, quantity was a quality in itself according to the proverb. Two dead giants led the way, followed by dead humans and animals by the thousands. All told, the resistance of Littlesister probably lasted less than a day. Certainly less.

Then the winter winds blew again. Borrowing the trick of the invasion forces sent to Bear Island, the sea froze between Littlesister and Sweetsister, allowing the tides of darkness to land on the central island of the Three Sisters. For the humans who assisted to this scene, it started to be an all familiar scene. Dead of all species and appearances, deprived of life but with piercing blue eyes shining in the semi-obscurity. Ranks were formed. Behind the trench dug in haste and the not-so-elevated walls, the defenders prepared to withstand the assault.

But this time, there was a problem. Magic. Or, to be more precise, the young witch Other perched on the second ice dragon. Less powerful than the Night's Queen, but possessing skills able to levitate part of an iceberg on the Sistermen's van.

The impact was spectacular. The battle fought in the aftermath too. Thousands of ice shards varying in size from a nail to a human's body and flying in every direction were quite dangerous, causing casualties by the scores. The wights had similar problems, but the Others had never been shy about collateral damage. The general charge was sounded, and the living and the dead clashed. On the rocky terrain of Sweetsister, a gigantic melee started, swords and spears clashing with the fangs, claws, and dead hands of the monsters hurled at the defenders by the Ancient Enemy.

To the consternation of the humans, it began very badly. In less than two hours, the Sistermen forming the core force of the right flank were routed and pulverised. All the members of House Torrent had perished in the first moments of the slaughter, Lord Triston Sunderland had fallen to the mace of a giant wight, and three of his sons had died trying to avenge him. The Northerners and the Stormlanders held better, thanks to their now considerable experience in facing such threats, but they were pressed hard, and the terrain as said before was not exactly favourable to impressive and difficult tactics.

The ice dragon refused to come back in range of the archers manning the frontlines, its duty done. The ice bridge linking Littlesister to Sweetsister progressively collapsed, the Others clearly having had some difficulty to be strong everywhere and their thralls having all set foot on the ground. The rare White Walkers present in the background forced their wights to press on, confident that soon their living enemies were going to lay face on earth and then rise as their undead minions.

Their confidence was wildly optimistic. Yes, the forces of Jon Snow and his subordinates had abandoned the shore to take refuge on the heights, leaving the ice warriors debark their entire army on the shore. No, that didn't mean the battle was over. Now, the wights and every corpse the White Walkers wanted to launch in the attack had to climb or evade the difficulties caused by the wet rocks, the terrain instability and their ignorance of the safest paths. It was hard for the Northerners and their allies, who had lost a major part of the local knights and men-at-arms. It was worse for the Others, who suffered the unpleasant realisation a lone archer could very well shoot them in the eye with a dragonglass-pointed arrow if they were not every time aware of their surroundings.

The butcher bill, which had been largely in favour of the abominations with a basic count of two thousand losses on each side, went down for the living while for the Others it increased at an alarming rate. The mysterious ice beings had been noted to lack quick adaptability, have little reaction to different types of strategy and of course have absolutely zero sensitivity when their wights took atrocious losses. On the Three Sisters, they proved this point again and again.

If the wight army had stayed unified with a single objective, victory would have in all likelihood become next to impossible. But as in many occurrences of the Second Long Night, the White Walkers proved to be their own worst opponents by misjudging or outright neglecting the nature of their adversaries. The wights raced in the hinterlands of the Sisters, only to be brutally cut down in countless ambushes, trapped on cliffs before being crushed by lengthy falls, suffered the ignominy of having a boulder flattening them and plenty of other atrocious demises. _One thousand methods to kill a Wight_ by Edd 'Dolorous' Tollett saw its first pages written there.

The soldiers of the Others saw their numbers disappearing like snow under the sun, not that the latter was present anymore. From a fifteen thousand-plus army, the wights had divided into small groups, which now could not number more than six or seven thousand with a dozen Others to command them. And then the reinforcements came. Human reinforcements.

Four thousand men of Dorne, led by Lord Anders Yronwood in person. Their army disintegrating, the monsters tried a last massive charge, which would have been an impressive sight to behold if one quarter of their dead thralls were not forced to crawl due to the various 'accidents' they had suffered in this invasion.

Seizing the opportunity, the Last Alliance survivors pushed back, and on the shores of Sweetsister victory finally came for humanity. A gigantic pyre was lighted, and thousands of wights were kicked in it, in order to avoid their inhuman masters to reanimate them.

This had been no easy triumph. Of the Sistermen forces, the better part had been killed. None of the Sunderland seven sons had lived to see the outcome of the last battle. Lord Alesander Staedmon had left this world. Jon 'Smalljon' Umber had received wounds on his right arm and right leg that would force him to stay off the rest of the war. In all, the Last Alliance had engaged eleven thousand men in the Battle of the Three Sisters and lost close to three thousand and nine hundred men to death. The numbers of wounded that had to be transported back to White Harbor was also considerable.

Victory, yes, but not one the men and women of the Seven Kingdoms could repeat dozens of times. Otherwise there would be no more armies, and even the almost bloodless reconquest of Littlesister didn't change that issue.

Because against the two new victories of the Night's Queen, this massacre was not worth qualifying as a turning point. House Pryor of Pebble and House Elesham castles had proven unable to stand against the ferocity and the ice-breath of a fully grown dragon. Where those two islands had been, now two columns of blue magic were rising in the sky, providing improvised guiding lights for the Ice Fleet.

As bad as these news were, it was not totally unexpected. The only places until now the ice lizards had refused to attack by choice or by design had been the Dreadfort and Winterfell. The only location where one of their attacks had been partially blunted had been the Wall. Like it or not, the commanders had to be realistic. The chances of Lord Emerett Pryor and Lord Malor Elesham succeeding where all the combined might of the Northern armies could only be regarded as low. And alas, the worst had indeed happened.

Moreover, the Night's Queen and her sorcerers had frozen Coldwater bay, and were in the process of landing there. What the forces of the Last Alliance could do...was exactly nothing. No naval force was in position to launch a daring assault in this theatre of the Vale, and even if there had been one, the ice dragon and the impossible size of the undead army waiting on the iceberg would only have enlarged the waves of dead the White Walkers landed on the former Arryn lands. Transporting troops there by sea would be utterly and totally suicidal, assuming the risk of counter-attack was non-existent.

It wasn't.

Without knowing the targets the Night's Queen intended to strike and the numbers of White Walkers on their way from Beyond-the-Wall coming to exterminate all living things, the Three Sisters had to be garrisoned and fortified in case a new ice attack was entertained to raze White Harbor. The Northern coasts where marching dead were pullulating had to be retaken. The siege of Winterfell had to be broken. The last defenders of Bear Island had to be supplied and relieved.

Moreover, the Battle of the Titan meant Braavos itself had been temporarily knocked out of the war. If the Last Alliance wanted to intervene, the road was southwards: pass the Neck again and enter the Vale by the Bloody Gate. Assuming, of course, there was to be something left of the kingdom ruled by Lord Protector Yohn Royce when they arrived.

Commander Jon Snow and several of his subordinates found understandably this delay too long, and decided to sail to the Vale northern coast before all hope had disappeared. Three hundred men and women went with him, including his lover Ygritte, scores of Northerners, several survivors of the Night's Watch like the famous Edd Tollett, Pypar and Grenn, as well as a core of Dornish troops led by Nymeria Sand.

The men living east of the Mountains of the Moon were really going to need this assistance. Because from every direction in the sky mounted roars of a species long-thought extinct by the Westerosi.

The dragons had come to dance for the final plunge into the darkness.


	90. The Battle of the Titan

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Braavos, the Others or the krakens.

raw666: Yes, this is the big question for Daenerys. Her choices are going to be critical for the next phase of the war.

X59: Yes, Drogon and Dreadwing are coming to the Vale. Not the only reptiles and armies coming, alas...

Unlike Stannis, Daenerys has never lived in Westeros and has grown up with a brother who had a completely false view of the last war. Stannis is a hard man, but behind his grumbling and his gritting of teeth, the Baratheon understood the realities of war, and is willing to do a lot of things to preserve his realm.

By contrast, the Mother of Dragons has advisors who continuously denied her the truth and did not instruct her in the Westerosi traditions. One might say in fact Selmy and Mormont are more to blame than her.

Paul: Aenys Frey went to war, like the majority of his House. Sorry if I did not make that clear.

Before the final surrender, there were no wildling who passed the Wall peacefully. The hostility between black brothers and Free Folk is bitter, short of bending the knee no one at the Wall would have been convinced of the purity of their intentions.

Unless they can play a key role in a battle, the members of the Night's Watch won't be that much mentioned. There are not that good warriors, and not many of them remain.

Daenerys didn't think much of Darry. It is not the same castle where Willem lived (change of decoration and owner do that), and personally she never lived there. The Queen had a fondness for Ser Willem, it doesn't extend to every place he lived or carry his name. And no Walder didn't turn his cloak. He's the Lord of Darry, Daenerys was unlikely to give him more power when his ascension happened under a Stark King. It's just that trying to fight a dragon without one or a powerful fortress is suicide.

No Smalljon's being maimed was written before the show, and I make a point by now not to decide a character on events happening in the show. My story is based on the books, not the poor adaption on TV.

Simple, every Dornish was proposed to take arms against the Others, but Oberyn made certain...affirmations which could have been recognised as threats and treason, and thus the Red Viper stayed at Darry under heavy guard. Except some unsavoury elements, the Dornish soldiers have marched north to fight for the Dawn.

I forgot Rosamund. But as she is a cousin of a 'lesser' line and not of the main one at Casterly Rock, she can be sidelined for now. Damn Lannisters, even when I kill them by the scores, there are still so many of them...

Yeah, my foresight on the wildfire seriously worries me sometimes...

ARabidTiger: yes these flame beings are the antithesis of the White Walkers, R'hllor servant brought to burn the world. Of course this little detail is not known to everyone. Thanks for the support!

thepkrgmc: That entirely depends what part of the Vale you're speaking about. The mountains and the passes? Absolutely. The valleys and the areas having the core of the population? Not so much. And to make matters worse, there has just been a civil war, which means plenty of corpses to go around.

yesboss21: They will help, in fact everyone will help against the White Walkers. It's just simple self-preservation and good intelligence. The problem is that they have been seriously weakened in assaults against Vale castles.

 **The Battle of the Titan**

 **Nightfall Part I**

" _Where the Others goes, death follows_." Braavosi proverb.

" _The Ironborn are dead, but at least one of their little friends survived. What is dead may never die, indeed_." Lord Jason Mallister, 301AC.

" _There is no problem that can't be solved by an explosion_." Author of the quote disputed, Westerosi historians attributing it to Tyrion Lannister while the Braavosi pretends one of their engineers told it first, 299AC.

" _By the end of this war, I think a lot of people will want to be left alone with an Other in a room. And I will bring personally a lot of sharp obsidian blades_." Anonymous Westerosi soldier, 301AC.

" _This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can_." Reported pre-battle speech from Admiral Taarys, Braavosi Admiral, 301AC.

The Three Sisters and the islands of the Shivering Sea were not the only diversions used by the Others core fleet to land safely on the Vale coast. On the other side of the Narrow Sea, a far more important battle had been in preparation.

Initially, the White Walkers had severely underestimated the importance of Braavos to the general war effort in the Second Long Night. This was somewhat understandable. The numbers of Essossi fighting in the Northern land campaign had been in the low thousands, and before the Battle of the Shivering Sea the naval side had been limited to transport and escort duties.

The terrible naval battle fought between the Braavosi and the Others changed that. Suddenly, the Night's Queen and her commanders recognised how dangerous the purple sails of Braavos could be, especially when they came in the hundreds and with dangerous experimental weapons. The reasoning thus coming shortly after was simple: Braavos had to be wiped out with extreme prejudice. Such a number of created wights would also no doubt create a powerful stepping point to conquer Essos when the Westerosi resistance was over. Iceberg crawling with wights and followed by Other sorcerers changed direction. Towards Braavos and one of the greatest battles of the era.

Of course, if the Others had realised the jaws they were going to put their icy hands in, the abominations would certainly have been more prudent and careful in their preparations, sent more cold legions or cancelled their offensive altogether. From the moment of its foundation, no one had dared attack Braavos, and for good reasons. Long before it was revealed to the world, 'the Bastard Daughter of Valyria' had built an arsenal, the famous Titans and weapons never seen before on the surface of this world. On the seas, a massive fleet was ready at all times to pulverise any enemy fleet coming to assault Braavos. On land, a series of watchtowers armed by massive ballista specifically conceived to bring down a dragon were guarding the passes. On every direction, the natural defences were completed by killing grounds and the fertile imagination of Braavosi engineers. During the reign of Aerys II the Mad, Lord Tywin Lannister had preferred repay in gold the debts of the Iron Throne rather than risk a conflict with the Braavosi military and economic agents, and it was not a thoughtless decision. The Valyrian Freehold at the apex of its power had judged the campaign not worth the many dragons that would perish shredded by scorpions bolts.

These were just the main and most evident defences. The return of magic into the world, or at least humans being able again to use magical capacities, meant that the scores of priests, witches and cults able to maintain a temple or a place of worship in Braavos gained a lot of influence in little amount of time. Red Priests able to throw fire balls and create burning warriors. Mist adepts controlling the winds. Various kind of shape-shifters. Ballista, catapults, trebuchets, scorpions of every size and model available. Hundreds of archers. Scores of elite sellsword companies hired in urgency and at fantastic prices.

To amplify the problems for the Others, there were no aerial surveys before the battle proper save a few bird wights. The ice dragons were occupied elsewhere, namely massacring all resistance on the Paps and Pebble islands. The rest of the air forces, a majority of bird wights and the big, nasty ice wyverns, were kept over the Iceberg Fleet in order for the maximum surprise effect to be unleashed when the bloodshed started. A dense frog permeated the southern Shivering Sea, temperatures went well below the point of freezing.

The Night's Queen shouldn't have bothered with these subterfuges and diversion attempts. The Braavosi could read a map and understand the awful situation they were going to face in the blink of an eye. From the moment the first defeated warship of the grand armada limped back in the gigantic harbour, the war effort became frenetic. Sealord Fregar had already ordered a massive acceleration in warship building, construction of defensive positions and weapon forging, but not in the same league. The moment the defeat of the Shivering Sea became known, most of the feuds having resulted from the last election ended. The outcome was too important. Braavos, for the first time since its reveal at the nose and the beard of the Valyrian Freehold, was going to fight for its very existence. Fight and win for the Dawn. Or fall and go unremembered into oblivion.

The civilians not able to contribute to the defence were evacuated to the eastern heights and the hinterlands. Walls were raised. Thousands of swords, arrows, obsidian daggers were given to the soldiers. For the first time in decades, the Titan was garrisoned and burnt with the fires of war. The storm would not be long in coming, and soon everyone watched the sea with angst, expecting at every moment for the nightmarish monsters to come out the winter fog.

And it did. The night turned darker and darker, and in the obscurity, ice started to form, solid enough for an elephant or a dragon to walk on it without any trouble. Primal sounds, never heard in Essos from any living memory, resonated. Countless blue lights tore apart the darkness, allowing humanity to leave their enemy leaving their iceberg and rushing in front of the city. Then the noise of wings, gloomy noises and impossible screams arrived to the ears of the Braavosi. Under the human eyes, an endless mass of corpses was now marching to end them, fuelled by cold blue lights and a storm of ice.

The Braavosi were ready to receive them. In a single order, hundreds of Red Priests positioned themselves, and delivered a fire wave of magic. Stocks of modified wildfire went up. Explosions came after explosions. The ice, created by the demonic sorcery of the most powerful White Walkers, didn't resist. In front of the Titan, the sea came back to claim its rights.

On its heels came the Braavosi warships, in a sally of the last chance. Admiral Taarys and his sailors had repaired the damage suffered in the last battle with the despair of condemned men, and now the purple sails charged again in the battle, ramming the ice, precipitating hundred of wights in the abysses of the sea. For a moment, the assault was irresistible. The wights burnt, were massacred or disappeared when the ice under their feet shattered. The fish wights, which had believed to be out of reach under that ice, were now harpooned or roasted.

But the Others sorcerers could not be thwarted for long. All stocks of incendiary projectiles were finite, the artificers having had too little time to produce them. As for the wizards, priests and other sorcerers, their magical forces were those of mortal. Ice came back, imprisoning the warships in an ice cocoon. The sailors were forced to abandon their hulls, or be massacred in desperate last stands when the undead climbed the wooden obstacles in a dark wave. Admiral Taarys went down with his flagship, lighting the remaining wildfire in a phenomenal explosion to take the maximum of wights with them to the realm of death.

The last defence between Braavos itself had failed. The Great Enemy was coming.

From the top of the Titan, the Essossi assisted to the terrifying spectacle of the ice army being revealed in all its awful glory. The frozen sea was black of their wights legions advancing. No matter the defences, it seemed impossible humanity could kill that many enemies.

The moment of hesitation did not last. Every Braavosi in range armed its weapon and attacked. Scorpion bolts, arrows, boulders, incendiary projectiles...the list of every weapon drawn took three pages. From a moment for the Others, it seemed like the Braavosi had deployed on the battlefield their own version of a darkness power. And then everything struck the dead troops.

The first ranks of the wights simply disappeared. Gone forever. The second were torn apart, hurt with injuries so bad even wights were useless in a clash with those. In every direction, the tides of darkness were thinned and murdered, casualties mounting in the thousands if not the tens of thousands.

Any living army would have stopped and turned around after suffering so much. Not the Others. Whether it was pure inhumanity or lack of regard from non-Other losses, the battle continued. Thousand of corpses had died, thousands rose and surged forwards to replace the losses. Rapidly, the animated bodies of humans, giants and other species arrived under the Titan, guarding the sole naval entrance left to Braavos.

It was there that the Others realised there was a massive problem. A harrow. Or more accurately, THE Harrow. A wall of forged steel which had been lowered after the passage of the last warships, and which now forbid any wights to enter Braavos. In vain, the undead threw all their rage at it. Dead mammoths tried to charge, their lack of coordination, leaving them trampling score of human corpses.

But the Braavosi engineers had done a thorough job. The levers and mechanisms to raise and descend the harrow were completely out of reach, even for giant wights. The steel was not Valyrian, but it had been forged by elite smiths and with remarkable dedication. The Others in command realised with hate in their hearts the only thing they had to do. One by one, the wights were going to have to climb on the Titan's colossal structure and dislodge the men defending it by force.

A deed, needless to say, which was way more difficult to do than to explain. Wights had never kept their agility and their sense of self-preservation of life when they passed into their undead state, and falling from the Titan was a fatal event, dead or not dead, as it shattered every bone in your body, fractured the skull and generally make you wish that you were dead if you had the bad luck to be still alive when it was over. Moreover, the men inside and at the top of the Titan were not idle, sending a torrent of death at the abominations trying to climb the masterwork of their city. Large falchions inspired from the Wall were released, massacring the attackers. Oil boiled, dragonglass reaped a terrible toll. On the other side of the harrow, the sea dancers took position and delivered volley after volley of flame arrows.

The space under the Titan became a slaughterhouse. From a distance, this area appeared to become an antechamber of the Seven Hells. Flames and screams echoed in the frozen air, with rumours afterwards saying they were heard to Pentos and beyond. The assault waves momentarily stopped. No matter the Others unsubtle tactics, the White Walkers were forced to acknowledge nothing could survive in this inferno of violence. Undead were replaceable...to a certain point. And this limit had been reached and passed over in this battle.

Many human generals would have argued it was time to retreat and fight another day. The Others decided it was time to engage all their forces in the battle. In one order, scores of ice wyverns, bird wights, snow lions, shadowcats and dead direwolves were unleashed. The last giant and mammoth reserves were emptied. Close to ten thousand more human wights. Strange animals from the Lands of Always Winter. And many other things, all dead, that by all rights should never have walked or crawled under the sun.

This great attack came like a warhammer on the Braavosi, and if the Others had had some capable generals in their ranks, the possibility of them breaching the defences and winning the night would not have been null.

As it was, the ice beings had completely neglected the little fact they had already ten of thousands beings which had been hurled during hours at the same defence. The mass of corpses sent first killed the mobility. The Titan's garrison was prepared for anything, especially a frontal attack. The defences were providing a fine protection (though by no means perfect) against the freezing ice breath of the monsters. Hundreds of defenders died, but their sacrifice cost the others thousands of cold bodies if not tens of thousands.

The regular White Walkers finally had to take the field and expose themselves to improve the control over their wights, and made the ugly realisation their life expectancy in these conditions was not exactly long. Far less than the time it took for a tiny hourglass to empty all its sand. In all this darkness, shining a blue magical light was an invitation to all archers. And when the distance was too far away, there was always the catapults and trebuchets. Massive rocks of obsidians recently mined at Dragonstone caused Others formations to be utterly wiped out.

The abnormal climate reigning at Braavos started to collapse on its own. The minor success so far accomplished by the winter forces was that the harrow was on the verge of collapse, between the wildfire, the various type of flames and the ice breath of the wyverns. The problem faced by the masters of the Long Night was that soon there would have no more troops to exploit it. The wight army was destroyed, its countless ranks a bad memory. Perhaps the Night's Queen could have reversed the outcome, but the leader of the White Walkers was not here, an happy circumstance as the Braavosi archers and siege engines were really seeing the end of their ammunition reserves coming.

Defeat was unavoidable for the White Walkers, but in fact even a victory by that point would not have compensated the insane losses taken in this battle. There was however a last thing the Others could do as the remnant of their armies fled to the iceberg and safety. In a heinous act, the sorcerers in the reserves combined their magical energies and directed it at the sea. As the gigantic blue cloud disappeared without any obvious result, the Braavosi cheered, content the last evilness of the abominations had refused to work.

Wrong.

A guttural sound sounded, one the Essossi did not manage to recognise. To be fair, none had been near the Shield Islands and had the misfortune to face the Crow's Eye cursed and dark manipulations.

Where the ice had been almost dispersed, a massive kraken emerged from the waters, bringing total despair and panic by the sheer size of its tentacles. Only a deep eye was visible, but it was a shining blue light.

And then it charged towards the Titan. The Braavosi unleashed every projectile possible in the short period of time available. It wasn't enough. The kraken was half-submerged, and the very substance coating the skin of this abyssal creature made it half-invincible. When it came upon the harrow, the steel grid didn't resist the monumental shock.

Where thousands of wights had failed, the kraken had triumphed. And it was not over. Like two gigantic snakes, the symbol of House Greyjoy began to exercise a terrible pressure on the feet and the lower part of the Titan's legs.

The Essossi archers transformed the kraken into a pincushion, massacring its blue eyes and other supposed weak points. It was not enough.

In a stunned silence which reminded the fall of the Wall, the Titan fell, pulverising the Kraken by the same occasion. What every general of the Last Alliance had feared had indeed happened.

The Others had knocked out Braavos out of the war.

Night had come to embrace humanity.


	91. To Win Don't Play

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Dorne or the Sand Snakes.

raw666: The krakens are not going to be recognised as good creatures, that's for sure. As for humanity...for every nation who will be reported to have survived the Long Night, there will be three or four which will have fallen into the darkness.

X59: The Others killed the kraken several millennia ago and used it its corpse only now. Enslaving the animal could have turned disastrously if it had escaped their control.

Paul: I have not exactly decided the deaths and how the succession will go out for House Piper and House Vance. Will be an issue discussed at the end of the war.

Close to six thousand Braavosi soldiers died when the Titan fell. The two thousand survivors who were defending the Titan, and close to four thousand in the shockwave which followed.

The Lannister maester of White Harbor was imprisoned, and then released when the Others tried to storm the city. He died in the siege, and few regretted him.

It's exact the Sand Snakes made no move to kill Myrcella in canon, but they were willing to murder Tommen and all Lannister, including children, to achieve vengeance. I don't think it is that much a stretch to think they would be willing to assassinate Myrcella. I admit the show influences still me a bit. I'm only human and it is the same universe...

Thanks for the remarks and the support. The Titan blocking the harbour is part of the reason Braavos is knocked off the war, although there is of course more. Terrible number of casualties. The Arsenal severely damaged by the resulting shockwave. Dozens of ships destroyed and sunk. A Titan will be rebuilt after the war, though it will be different in doctrine and the message it carries.

There are still many Braavosi fighting everywhere, but their main role is now transportation for the Targaryen troops from Pentos and Dragonstone to the Vale, plus supplies for the North. Hundreds are handling logistics and the sellswords sent in the melee. Not exactly glamorous roles, but vital for the war effort.

Mike: Thanks for the review. It's true the history format is a bit lacking in personal involvement, but this was the one I chose for this story. Of course, choosing characters in the GRRM way is also a difficult endeavour. I have other stories which are a bit more classical on the POVs though.

ProCannonFodder: Thanks very much for the compliments.

Gremlin Jack: Using the Kraken was not that simple for the Others, they consumed an astronomical amount of magic to launch it at Braavos. It was a measure they really hoped they wouldn't have to resolve, the point they did it is a good indicator of their desperation. In hindsight, they should have started with it, yes.

thepkrgmc: First, the Titan was positioned at the entrance of Braavos. With it fallen and blocking the way, there is no possibility to take a ship and leave Braavos. The land way is still available, but it is slower and to reach Westeros not that useful. Plus it caused large damage to the Arsenal. Braavos will recover, but it can't in mere days rebuild and go back to pre-war status.

yesboss21: Yes it is. As for the Essossi gods, they are manifesting their own way. There are hundreds of them, some have less than a thousand believers, their powers vary from big to inexistent.

 **To Win Don't Play**

 **The Dornish Civil War Part II**

" _In this war, everyone lost_." Lord Richard Horpe, 302AC.

" _Unbowed. Unbent. Unbroken. For my daughters_." Last words of Princess Arianne Martell, 301AC.

" _What_?" Supposed last word of Prince Quentyn Martell, authenticity never confirmed, 301AC.

" _I hear Tyrosh is very nice at this time of the year_." Prince Trystane Martell to his wife Princess Myrcella, 301AC.

The Dornish Civil War raging at the same moment their armies were battling the icy abominations in the North, the Three Sisters and the Vale was really a curious affair. By the opinion of all outside observers, the men and women formerly sworn to Sunspear should have found a way to peacefully settle their issues, or at least wait before the Others were defeated, the Second Long Night finished, and the first clues of what the post-war situation was going to be.

Instead, the Dornish fought. Qorgyle skirmishers tried to slow down the Dayne cavalry. The Uller troops tried to push northwards, and were soundly beaten by the Yronwood second mustering. There were raids on the shores, ambushes in the sands. Feuds and quarrels which had been sleeping from anything between one and a hundred generations were revived, the natives being infamously renowned for their hot tempers and acting before thinking. The Marches were spared most of the fighting, given that the majority of their levies and men-at-arms were fighting for the Dawn or dead, and the castles of the mountainous areas were occupied by the forces of the Storm Kingdom.

But the provinces along the Greenblood were under no such restriction. The river had always boasted the largest densities of population in Dorne, thanks to the presence of drinkable water in large quantities. To make things worse, the weather had turned rainy and enough cold to be compared to an autumn in the Riverlands or the Vale. As such, there were no hindrances for soldiers wanting to go out their homes, fight, destroy and unleash the flames of war in their wake.

And fight they did. From the east and Sunspear, the Unsullied nominally under Prince Quentyn Martell came, five hundred of the elite Essossi infantry, followed by over two thousand Freedmen and seven thousand barely trained men-at-arms, the latter just rallied to his cause. On the other side, were the cavalrymen and the infantrymen of House Allyrion, Gargalen and Vaith, numerous knights and their bannersmen. Four years ago, these Nobles Houses could have brought over ten thousand men to the battlefield. Now? Close to eight thousand men, one-sixth of it cavalry, and everyone knew the quality, the equipment and the reliability of these warriors was sorely lacking.

It meant the partisans of Prince Trystane or Prince Quentyn could not confidently say they were going to win this battle, never mind the civil war as a whole. The supporters of Princess Arianne Martell gained ground everywhere, from Starfall to Lemonwood. A short and decisive victory had to be won, before Admiral Davos Seaworth or any other senior Stormlands commander came back to finish the two pretenders.

The two armies thus met near the little village of Four-Hills, about half-way between Planky Town and Godsgrace. Both Quentyn and Trystane were present to command their armies to battle, although in reality the strategy and the tactics were delegated to their senior military commanders. For Prince Quentyn, this role was given to the Unsullied Commander Red Feet. A decision which was not accepted without much grumblings and protestations by the Dornish infantry, not content to see a former slave of Astapor occupies what was de facto the position of Commander-in-chief. Among their opponents, it was worse. Three powerful Lords and Heirs were present, each wanting the command and the prestige which went with it. Ser Ryon Allyrion, Lord Tremond Gargalen and Lord Daeron Vaith were not nobles who had any fondness for each other, and the point Prince Trystane was still an inexperienced young man only exacerbated the issues. The hours before the battle were not passed studying possible flanking attacks, orders in the formation or the type of arrows to use to breach the Unsullied large shields. It was passed bickering for who was going to have the honour of supreme command, the van and the diverse positions an army of this size is sure to have. The compromises taken satisfied no one save perhaps Lord Tremond Gargalen, named General by his new Prince. Ser Ryon Allyrion was charged to lead the left flank, Lord Daeron Vaith the right, and Prince Trystane himself with his Sunspear advisors would have the reserves.

Under a grey sky of winter, the two armies came against each other and fought mid-morning. Unlike countless battles of the War of the Eight Kings, there were no night-time raids before this engagement, and little skirmishes on the Greenblood. It was not, like some propaganda efforts affirmed, because the Dornish had no idea how to fight a war, but a true will to keep the casualties of their own ranks to a minimum before the decisive battle. Given what happened later that day, it was ironic in the extreme.

Red Feet had placed all his Unsullied in the centre, with the Freedmen on his left and the Dornish on his right. Then the soldiers of Lord Gargalen charged. The Dornish commander had bet a combination of horse archers shooting from afar and regular pikemen advancing would be the better method to defeat the Slaver's bay warriors. The first instants of the battle proved it was definitely not true. The heavy spears of the Unsullied slaughtered the Dornish, so fast the first ranks of Prince Trystane's army disappeared almost like magic. The light arrows ricocheted on the armours, causing very little harm.

On the flanks, it was the opposite which happened. Prince Quentyn had brought nearly no cavalry to the battlefield, and historians supposed the eldest son of Doran Martell had cursed at one point or another for not having convinced Queen Daenerys Targaryen not to give him a few hundred Dothraki. The barbarians may be bloodthirsty savages, but their presence on the battlefield would have been greatly appreciated, seeing how the Allyrion and Vaith horse devastated the Freedmen and Dornish lines.

At least Prince Quentyn had the Unsullied. In the centre of the battlefield, the Gargalen infantry was withdrawing in complete confusion, a third of its numbers dead or agonising. Scores of Dornish men were crushed when they were caught between the large shields and the bodies of their own comrades. More were trampled to death, skewered at the point of the spears. For some of the greenest troops, this brief and bloody contact with war was largely enough for a good lifetime. Throwing their weapons, they ran at their fastest speed away from the bloodshed.

Lord Tremond Gargalen was forced to release his reserves into the battle, despite the carnage having not lasted two hours, and the Lord of the Salt Shore took himself the command of his cavalry to deliver a large strike on the right of the outflanked Unsullied. It could have worked, had the Essossi had been less disciplined and Lord Gargalen's allies been more considerate to help their fellow lord.

Unfortunately, Ser Ryon Allyrion had well pursued the routed Freedmen, so well the Heir of Godsgrace was out of touch with the rest of the battle, hidden behind one of the desertic hills abounding in the Dornish landscape. Lord Daeron Vaith conduct was more odious, ignoring the obvious call for help and continuing to battle the Dornish levies of Prince Quentyn, perhaps counting on the Unsullied of the Mother of Dragons to destroy his chief rival.

Commander Red Feet was happy to oblige. The cavalry charge of Lord Gargalen came very close to break the ranks of the Unsullied, who were not present in large numbers that day, but close was not enough when it came to the dance of swords. The death of Lord Gargalen, dismounted and trampled by the horse of one of his own sworn swords, undoubtedly didn't help. The centre of Prince Trystane's army broke.

In other circumstances, such a turn of events would have been a defeat where there was going to be no tomorrow. But the coalition of lords under Prince Trystane had destroyed most of their enemies. Except the Unsullied of course. Prince Quentyn and his commanders lack of knowledge concerning the terrain and their opposition was starting to be the downfall.

There were now three hundred Unsullied left, and Ser Ryon Allyrion came back on their rear, and Lord Vaith had finally recognised that if his swords didn't help the almost-shattered centre immediately, defeat was going to be theirs.

It was almost too late...for the Vaith and Allyrion cavalry. The infantry the two commanders had had was mostly dead, had fled somewhere thorough the desert or had gone drowning in the Greenblood. And as any Dothraki could tell you, charging a group of Unsullied who has nowhere to go is a really bad idea. Once again, it was verified.

There were less than two hundred and fifty Essossi left on the battlefield, facing eight hundred enemies, half of them mounted. Three charges and counter-charges later, the Unsullied were all dead, including their commander Red Feet. But the price was awful. Lord Daeron Vaith was no longer of this world, Ser Ryon Allyrion had had one of his legs stabbed and hacked so bad amputation was necessary in the aftermath. Of the men who had followed Prince Trystane, a paltry detachment of two hundred remained, the majority wounded. There were soldiers of each army dispersed everywhere, but these were all the men left on the field. For all intent and purposes, the two forces had been destroyed militarily.

For Prince Quentyn, none of this mattered. While the oldest son of Doran Martell had not died in the extermination of the Unsullied force, his situation had been little better: alone on a horse, fleeing for his life pursued by a patrol of Vaith raiders. The next afternoon, believing to have escaped his potential assassins, Quentyn Martell stopped to drink on the northern shore of the Greenblood. It was his last mistake, as an enemy scout ambushed him and put a spear through his back while the Prince watched and drank the emerald waters.

The current turned red, and the birthplace of the Orphans welcomed the body of one of the three Princes of Dorne pretenders. So ended Prince Quentyn Martell, a young man who by all witnesses from this era was never described as particularly ambitious, skilled or clever.

Him dead, a rational though would have been to think Prince Trystane and his army had the way wide open for a triumph at Sunspear. This was mostly incorrect. Why? Because said army had been severely disorganised, one might say crippled with two of the most powerful lord dead and the other unconscious. Thus, Prince Trystane and Princess Myrcella found themselves unable to exploit their victory, which as turn of hourglasses succeeded to turn of hourglasses, revealed itself more and more to be a disaster.

The troops which had been mustered to fight the Civil War had died or deserted. Worse, these troops had been the second wave of levies, the first having gone with Aegon VI and the survivors now fighting under the banners of the Last Alliance. And while some knights out of touch with reality proposed to call to arms the population a third time...everyone knew that was simply not a possibility. There were already riots and minor insurrections of malcontent smallfolks; no need to transform it into a big, major rebellion against the princely authority. Call exactly what troops by the way? With the imminent defeat of House Qorgyle and Uller, maybe half of the Dornish lands were under Baratheon rule, and the other half was in danger of being overrun.

There was still a small way to crawl towards something looking like stalemate, though. Sunspear, Planky Town and for that matter the rest of Dorne's eastern coast were clearly undefended at the moment the battle of Four-Hills was over. Should the chief fortress and the sole city of Dorne capitulated without violence, it was possible to salvage a hope for a better future.

Destiny had other plans in mind. At Planky Town, the second wave of reinforcements sent by Unsullied Commander Grey Worm was landing. Due to the transport difficulties to bring the entire Targaryen army to the Vale with Braavosi and Pentoshi hulls, several Tyroshi wealthy citizens had been bribed. Apparently, Queen Daenerys or one of her main advisors had been less than convinced Prince Quentyn was going to do an excellent job to pacify Dorne, and sent four thousand men, a combination of Freedmen, sellswords and Dothraki that had not been considered first-rate troops.

As it happened, they should not have bothered. The wave of reinforcements did not arrive in time, in fact by the time of their travel's end, rumours of the battle having just been fought were spreading. As a result, to say the welcome received was frosty was a massive understatement. The Dornish population had regarded the arrival of the first foreigners with deep suspicion, fearful the arrival of Prince Quentyn was a cover for conquest and the intervention of Essossi powerful players. Now that Prince Trystane and Prince Quentyn allies had proven they were unable to maintain the stability of the realm, it was several orders worse. And behind the scenes, the illegitimate daughters the Red Viper, Obara and Tyene Sand were fomenting an insurrection.

The last Targaryen soldier had not left the ships that the situation went out of control at Sunspear. What few Freedmen and partisans Prince Quentyn had left there before going meet his death on the Greenblood had not the strength to resist to the massive rebellion planned and executed in the name of Princess Arianne Martell.

The Dothraki on the Targaryen expeditionary force tried to intervene, perhaps felling a good massacre was a good way to return to their ancestral practise of raiding and butchery...which completely destroyed any good will the Dornish might have had towards the cause of the deceased Prince Quentyn.

Every man or woman in age to wield a spear rose up in arms, letting the Essossi understand why Westeros had decided that conquering Dorne by the force of the dragons and the steel was not that a good idea. The Freedmen retreated to the ships, the sellswords quickly changed their allegiance, and the last supporters of the Unsullied and the Mother of Dragons found themselves imprisoned in the uncomfortable and dangerous cages above the snake pits.

To his credit, Prince Trystane understood rapidly in spite of his young age that any chance of reigning at Sunspear were definitely inexistent. With Princess Myrcella and half a score trusted servants, the youngest child of Doran Martell left the remnants of his camp in the middle of the night. Wise choice. Two mornings later, Ser Balon Swann assaulted the location, taking prisoner Ser Ryon Allyrion and two hundred men.

This was the end of the Dornish Civil War.

No one in Dorne was aware of it yet, but hundred of leagues north at Storm's End, two young girls had just been born. Twins identical and yet promised to vastly different fate.

The eldest was going to be known in later decades as Tyanna Martell, Lady of Sunspear.

The cadet was Vhaela Targaryen, Dragon Queen and Empress.

Their mother Arianne Martell did not survive childbirth, a sad issue, but not an unsurprising one as the legitimate ruler of Dorne had never recovered from the death of her husband.

A Regency Council would have to be formed for Sunspear of course. But before this, the Stormlanders and the rest of Westeros wanted to be sure there was going to be a tomorrow. As the Others had come...and the Night followed them.


	92. Army of Death

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Vale, the Mountains of the Moon and the winter conditions.

 **Author's Note** : This chapter is posted one day before the usual date, as I am going to take a break and won't be able to post it on Tuesday. For the next two weeks, no updates. After this hiatus, A different weasel makes a difference and the other stories will resume on schedule.

raw666: Well, as long as Westeros wasn't united, invading Dorne was simply not practical. Once it did, the Dornish strategy was one of attrition. It worked only because the Targaryens weren't competent and threw all their gains away under Baelor I. If more skilled commanders had been in charge, it is very probable no Martell would be reigning at Sunspear.

X59: Oberyn is not going to be very happy, that's for sure. For all his faults, the Red Viper loved his brother and his country, and the civil war has caused a lot of destruction.

melubarv: House Martell is going to keep the lordship of Sunspear. As for the rest...

grg213: Not a summary, presented on a history book format.

Paul: The events of Riverrun have forced Daenerys to change a lot her priorities, hopes, plans and beliefs. A beginning of answer in this chapter.

Lord Vaith was sent to Dorne as an emissary by Stannis after his surrender, in order for Storm's End to ensure Dorne would be compliant with Baratheon rule. As you can remark yourself, it backfired. Badly.

The Lonely Light will have a greater influence on the Iron Islands than in the past, but it will not be that much. Their population levels aren't enough for more than a partial re-colonisation.

I know what you're thinking, but Denys Mallister, Bronn and a good part of the Black Lions were simply vaporised when the Night's Queen unleashed her ice magic on the breath. They, at least, would not come back as wights.

Sandor's fate in the show...yeah I was surprised by how it turned too. You know what they say about coincidences...

For House Merlyn, haven't yet decided, but it is probable how it will be settled in the post-war situation.

There are still some Sunderland cousins. With how large the main branch was, there must be secondary branches in existence. Thousands of Braavosi soldiers survived the battle. A good part was needed for the civilians' evacuation, and other defences were left untouched as the White Walkers focused on the Titan. Sow's Horn changed hands, because they were for Joffrey and then Tommen until the Starks won at King's Landing, and given that the Crownlords were on the Lannisters side, no one was really interested in preserving the status quo.

thepkrgmc: That is going to be one of the 'interesting' scenarios after the Second Long Night ends...

 **Army of Death**

 **Nightfall Part II**

 _"Jon Snow is going to die young or become a king before his twenty name days. This Stark is the sort of man-"_ Ser Justin Massey, 301AC, witnesses affirm this sentence of Ser Justin was interrupted by glares from King Stannis Baratheon and King Robb Stark.

" _Our waters are cold, but our hearts are of flame! For the Lord Protector! For the Vale!_ " Lord Royce Coldwater, 301AC.

" _Tell Lord Corbray to retreat to Donnel's Pass. We have to trade space for time."_ Lord Yohn Royce, 301AC.

" _This battle should be called 'how to lose an army for nothing'._ " Black Brother Pypar, on the battle of Heart's Home.

The Vale. One of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, founded by the Arryn dynasty, governed by the Kings of the Mountain and the Vale until Aegon the Conqueror came with his dragons to unite Westeros. Bordered by the Bite to the north, the Bay of Crabs to the south, the Narrow Sea to the east and the Mountains of the Moon to the west, the Vale was a region extremely easy to defend; it was said the Gods had made the greater part of the work to make this land isolated. The humans who lived there had added their own defences, and they were redoubtable, with the Bloody Gate and the Eyrie being among the most challenging fortresses to assault in the known world.

And yet when the Great Enemy came, the Valemen were caught totally unprepared by the icy abominations. The Others had not taken the Kingsroad to cross the Neck, attack the Twins and the Riverlands before going eastwards. The grand assault of the Night would not come by the Bloody Gate, a pass which could be easily held by a quick muster ordered by Lord Protector Yohn Royce.

Before any raven or Northern messenger could arrive to the Eyrie and give the news of the Battle of the Three Sisters, the Night's Queen and her formidable army of death had already landed in Coldwater Bay. No doubt the bad weather or the Braavosi fleets could have stopped the landing of any conventional enemy. Alas, the White Walkers were not Mountain clansmen, pirates or even a sellsails fleet. With them came death and the winds of winter, and where any audacious captain would have refused to take his ships in such conditions, the beings of the Lands of Always Winter went without fear.

That was not to say the Others and their dead thralls debarked completely unopposed. Coldwater Bay was bordered by the lands of House Coldwater, and the castle of Coldwater Burn had been built at the extremity of the only pass and valley in a circle of dozens of leagues. The river flowing into the bay was not a problem for ice magic wizards, but the wights were going to have to take this keep or learn to fly over the mountains.

It would have been better for humanity if the castle had had a significant reputation and the defences going with it. Coldwater Burn had never been attacked in the last five hundred years by something more dangerous than a band of desperate pirates and two scores of starving clansmen. The rocking ground and the lack of any valuable resources to trade were enough reasons to explain this disinterest. House Coldwater had a keep, all in stone, but it was a bulky, solid construction on par with Last Hearth and Widow's Watch in size, with no magical protection of any kind. Considering the last two castles had fallen or lost all their defenders when the time came to fight against the legions of the Night's Queen, it was not exactly reassuring.

There were more bad news. For reasons and logistics that were quite obvious, nobody had been clairvoyant enough to send dragonglass to a little-known castle such as Coldwater Burn. The less said about wildfire, Valyrian steel or gigantic siege weapons, the better. Not that it mattered in the great strategic picture. Trebuchets or large catapults were manpower intensive, and if there was one thing House Coldwater had in short supply at this moment, it was warriors to defend their home.

At the onset of the civil war having led to the fall of House Arryn, Lord Royce Coldwater had been forced to take the field against House Lynderly, and ultimately the coalition formed by House Corbray and Coldwater had emerged victorious against the soldiers of Snakewood. In military terms, it meant the castle of the defeated House Lynderly had to be garrisoned until a new House was chosen to replace the vanquished lord. In other and more happier times, it would have been an occasion to celebrate.

In the Second Long Night, it left Lord Coldwater with less than eight hundred men-at-arms and knights able to be gathered at such a short notice to stop the tides of darkness landing from their icebergs. No need to be a genius strategist to know Coldwater Burn had not a chance in the Seven Hells to stop the abominations coming at them.

It would have been already a hard challenge if the Others had adopted their now infamous tactic of burying their enemies by the numbers; it was impossible as the Night's Queen and her commanders started to understand that unless they did not adapt, the humans were going to adapt. In a fog so thick and cold many humans died without seeing the first enemy coming, undead animals no one had seen until then on the battlefield climbed the walls of Coldwater Burn. Sloths. The wights were much slower than the average skeleton, but the large claws of the animal cut down many guardsmen before alarm was finally sounded. After that it was the turn of the shadowcats to enter the battlefield, emerging from the darkness like flashes, tearing apart throats and unarmed body parts before the soldiers had the time to raise their weapon to block the wight. Mammoths brought an improvised ram at the gate, and it was all over. Against the fury of the dead and the magical bombardment coming from the inhuman sorcerers, the wood reinforced by steel didn't resist, letting thousands of wights enter the keep, closely followed by thousands of White Walkers.

Lord Royce Coldwater had evacuated the maximum of civilians, the soldiers he judged non-expendable and his own family as soon as the first wight came to touch the ground of the Vale, and it was a good precaution, because none of the men and women who had stayed in his castle survived to tell the outcome of the battle. Reports from the rear-guard of the Coldwater escapees spoke of a valiant resistance at the top of the fortress, with the surviving defenders trying to set the keep ablaze from the roof to make this victory a very costly one. It was not successful, as an ice dragon chose this moment to eradicate the living with his cold breath. The flames were extinguished, and silence fell in the northernmost areas of the Vale.

Only for a moment, though. After mere hours, the wight army raced south in the direction of Heart's Home. The strategy of the Others, whether deliberate or a happy coincidence due to the Vale geography and terrain, was not hard to guess. Should the Corbray ancestral household was conquered, Strongsong and Snakewood would be cut off from any reinforcements, and the way to the heart of the Vale and its highest amounts of population would be wide open.

Despite the assistance of several clansmen who had realised the wights did not care about if you were an Andal or a First Man, a lot of the fleeing refugees died. Marching and running through the mountain high passes in the middle of winter was usually a death sentence. With wights and White Walkers in hot pursuit, the list of casualties grew out of control. The knights of House Coldwater, joined by the fleeing garrison of the Snakewood and thousands of local smallfolk, tried to maintain some cohesion in the grey mornings and afternoons, but once night fell, terror gripped every human's heart, sinister blue lights shone in the distance, and the courage of warriors and civilians alike turned to ashes. Each morning, scores of men, women and children disappeared into the night. Many of the dying had to be slain and burnt, the ice blades proving quite deadly and the augmentation of the Others army had to be prevented. Overall, it was less than ten thousand people who managed the arduous travel to Heart's Home.

But if the now deceased Lord Coldwater had acknowledged the danger the Vale faced, it was not the case of Lord Lyonel Corbray. The Master of Heart's Home had taken great delight in beating his cadet brother and Lord Lynderly at the sort of games the two Arryn loyalists were supposed to be good at, and now was convinced his troops could endure and defeat the avalanche coming straight to his door. In vain, Lord Belmore sent ravens to his fellow lord, advising him to withdraw to Ronnel's Pass where Lord Protector Yohn Royce concentrated the Vale armies. The words of Lady Kellia Coldwater, sole survivor of her entire House, went unheard. Lord Lyonel, the Valyrian blade Lady Forlorn in one hand, was exceedingly confident of his unavoidable victory against the Others, which would no doubt give the rest of the Vale the time to launch their own counter-offensive and throw back the Great Enemy into the sea.

This confidence was unpleasantly contagious. While the soldiers and survivors having suffered the traumatising experience of being prey for the wights marched southwards at a fast pace, close to six thousand men of House Corbray and several minor Knightly Houses stayed at Heart's Home to find eternal glory in the battle to come. What followed...wasn't exactly what the eager Summer Knights had dreamt.

Too bad Lord Corbray had forgotten two crucial things before the battle. The first had been to burn all corpses present in the cemeteries close to his castle. The second had been to forget that contrary to the Northerners, the Braavosi and all the members of the Last Alliance, House Corbray had a very limited stock of dragonglass. Three daggers and two arrowheads to be exact. Plus Lady Forlorn. Not much, when the opposition had thousands of monsters only dispatched by fire and these weapons.

One day before the great battle was fought on Corbray lands, the force under Commander Jon Snow arrived. The Northerners, Black Brothers and Dornish had lost twenty men, but thanks to a lone clansman guide, they had been able to harry and bypass the nightmarish force bearing on the Seven Kingdoms. According to the legend, the illegitimate brother of the King in the North remained less an hour examining the ramparts and the walls before announcing his decision to leave. The Vale knights railed this assessment, all the while the two hundred and eighty veterans ran away, all too aware of the terrible fragility of the defences.

One day later, the laughter of Lord Lyonel Corbray and his followers died in their throats. The Night's Queen had reanimated all the corpses the Master of Heart's Home had disdained to destroy by the flames, giving her army a boost of some fifteen thousand wights. Added to the initial undead force the White Walkers had with them, House Corbray and their bannersmen faced the next closest thing to fifty thousand wights. At least. To these insane numbers, the ten thousands plus Others might not seem a big proposition, but the Vale soldiers had only one valuable weapon to kill them.

The battle was decided before it truly began. In a shriek so high the Myrish glass shattered, the Night's Queen dived from the dark clouds on her ice dragons. Twenty seconds later, it rose again. The castle of Heart's Home had now a massive breach in the centre of the ramparts, six hundred archers and infantry had perished, hundreds of high-born and low-born had severe frostbites or were agonising from the after-effects of the dragon's breath.

That left only the Corbray cavalry, that due to a supposedly clever stratagem of Lord Lyonel had been hidden behind a small cove on the left of the castle. Seven hundred mounted men, the cream of the Vale chivalry of this theatre. Maybe they should have noticed the fact a dragonrider could see everything from the skies, and for an ice dragon and its Other rider, it was true too in the dreadful winter conditions, no matter if it was night or day.

When Lord Lyonel and the first wave of knights emerged from the trees with warcry on their lips, it was to face a charge including mammoths and a varied range of dead predators. The horses and the humans panicked an instant. Not a turn of small hourglass later, the mammoths charged and sent them biting the frozen ground. The Corbray force had not the opportunity to assess the tactical situation that half of them were dismounted and dead. Lord Lyonel's corpse was trampled by a mammoth and a giant. His brother Lucas had gone missing in the melee. The freeriders and knights lucky to breath after this one-sided slaughter did the only thing sane in these circumstances, and rode away at full gallop.

But for the garrison of Heart's Home there was no escape possible. Tens of thousands wights slammed in their ranks. The court of the castle was overwhelmed in mere moments. The rest of the fortress did not resist better, the corridors, the halls and the diverse rooms became slaughterhouses. There was no command to burn the dead, and it was extremely easy to see the total victory the Night's Queen could have won, if not for Jon Snow and his archer company, who sent waves after waves of fire arrows at Heat's Home. Hundreds of wights still rose from the butchery, but not the thousands or tens of thousands having been slain. It was not sensible to deny the Others had won a large victory however. The ice dragons in the mean time were proving more and more to be the bringers of ruin and despair every occasion they appeared.

Fortunately for the Valemen, hope remained. Queen Daenerys Targaryen had heard the command of the Warrior (though there are plenty of Westerosi to this day who affirm the damage had been done) and had come back to Dragonstone in a hurricane of wings. From there, a rapid plan had been formed to transport the greatest numbers of soldiers possible to the Vale. It was not easy, thanks to the huge destruction having occurred at Gulltown, forcing the generals and admirals to choose Old Anchor instead for landing, the seat of House Melcolm. Large quantities of dragonglass served to equip the soldiers of Essos and the East came along.

Quite surprisingly, the Unsullied, Freedmen and Dothraki were warmly welcomed in the Melcolm harbour. Or maybe not surprisingly. Unlike the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, the Vale had not taken part in the War of the Eight Kings, the popularity of Ser Barristan Selmy, the last Kingsguard (or Queensguard) to wear the white armour, was as high as ever, the rebellion against the Targaryens was long past (and the Vale had had its fair share of loyalists) and of course with the horrible news coming from the front, the common smallfolk would have converted to R'hllor or any known divinity if it gave the assurance the Others weren't going to kill them all.

Nevertheless, not every Targaryen soldier would arrive in time to the battlefield. Due to the Battle of Braavos, there were a limited number of transports, different priorities, and Queen Daenerys could not afford to rush her entire army on Westeros, less the Mother of Dragons face a major uprising as soon as she had her back turned. Thus there were approximately eighteen thousand soldiers landing at Old Anchor, a muster including close to five thousand Unsullied commanded by Grey Worm and Ser Barristan Selmy. Even with the support of the Vale knights, the Essossi were going to be significantly outnumbered on the battlefield.

At least the Targaryen-Royce alliance of fortune could console itself by saying they had the numerical advantage in dragons.

Had they?


	93. A Million Tears

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Vale, the Others, the ice dragons or the Long Night.

raw666: Answer in this chapter, just saying that for a dragon to smell you, you have to be close and the dragon has to care and not be distracted by other things.

X59: Yes, Justin Massey attracts too much attention for his own good. As for Dreadwing, no Night's Queen influence for now, the black dragon is causing well enough damage without it.

Guest: Thanks!

Paul: I have nothing against good reviews, but please keep it to a reasonable number. Too many of them in two weeks kind of defeat their purpose.

Massey speaks because he can. And nine times out of ten he really shouldn't have spoken as the benefits of his tirade are rarely that great. Indeed, Lyn Corbray might have been a best choice to lead the forces of Heart's Home.

No kinslaying fault for Trystane. He did not give personally the order, and in fact the soldier who did the deed didn't even realise he had killed Quentyn, the eldest son of Doran wasn't that notable or charismatic to be remembered...

The Pebble and Paps are completely destroyed, as are their Houses. These islands are going to stay uninhabited for quite a time, nobody having quite the funds or the will to settle a place where an ice dragon has destroyed everything. For the other areas, answering would spoil things too much.

Certain characters and factions you mentioned are going to appear in this chapter. As for the rest, well this is a big world, and there are plenty of 'interesting' events happening...

Sage of Wind Dragons: Thanks! A lot of interesting speculations here, some are true, some are not, but they are well reasoned. Yeah, the Vale and Daenerys have a real fight on their hands.

thepkrgmc: Lord Yohn Royce is going to listen Jon, that's for sure. Whether it will be enough...

 **A Million Tears**

 **Nightfall Part III**

" _Night gathers..._ " Black Brother Edd 'the Dolorous', 301AC.

" _THE NIGHT ENDS!_ " War cry of the Vale-Targaryen army at the Battle of the Frozen Tears, 301AC.

" _Oh by the Seven Hells..._ " Lord Protector Yohn 'the Bronzed Royce, 301AC.

" _Don't stay here like with this face of rabbit! Run!_ " Anonymous Vale soldier, 301AC.

" _The dragons have failed. We won't._ " King Stannis Baratheon, 301AC.

When one asks today the greatest defeat humanity suffered in the Second Long Night, there is a good chance they will answer the Battle of Ronnel's Pass. Or, as bards and their successors in the methods of public entertainment have popularised it, the Battle of the Frozen Tears.

Save the Battle of the Wall and of course several large and bloody battles in far away Yi-Ti, there are few other alternatives proposed. While some battles in the Campaign of the North were on the same level of horror, few ended in such a dark fashion.

First the forces in presence. At the beginning of the battle, in a dark morning of winter where visibility was very low, the largest mustering the Vale could afford in 301AC was gathered on the southern extremity of Ronnel's Pass. The Targaryen reinforcements having not yet arrived, the army of the living on site was consisting of roughly twenty thousand Vale men-at-arms and knights, and the two hundreds plus men of Commander Jon Snow. If the Northern leader had only veterans of countless battles with him, about a third of the Valemen soldiers were beginning their first campaign, having been recruited out of their homes in all haste. There was a solid core of experienced warriors, either having mounted raids on the clansmen in the mountains or participated in the recent civil war, but none had had the dubious honour of looking death in the face.

That said, the situation initially wasn't as desperate as it would look a few hours later. This time it was not a Lord Lyonel Corbray in command, but the Lord Protector Yohn Royce in person. The famous high lord known as the Bronzed had Lord Redfort, Lord Hunter and many renowned fighters as subordinates. And the Lord of the Runestone had been given enough time and manpower to erect formidable defences despite the winter conditions and the frozen ground. Six massive trenches had been dug at irregular intervals. The hill commanding the southern edge of the pass had been fortified to the point even one ice dragon had to hesitate before charging. Nine ballista. Fourteen scorpions. Eight catapults. Several hundred archers. And the abandoned watchtower at the top had been partially rebuilt to provide decent protection against aerial threats.

The rest of the defences had been no less impressive. Ronnel's Pass was a ground favouring hugely the defender over the attacker, and several massive boulders had been put into position to exploit this advantage, the huge natural projectiles ready to pulverise any wight stupid to venture its ugly head into the pass. Stoneworkers had worked the stone on every side to provoke located rock avalanches in command almost instantly after the order was given. Large ranks of steel and obsidian pikes formed a dark forest. Against any conventional enemy, this would have been ten times more strength than was needed. Against the Night's Queen, her ice and dead servants? Everyone living hoped it was going to be sufficient.

But as the dark tides and a violent blizzard revealed themselves onto the battlefield, the great majority of the men-at-arms and the cavalry realised how naive their boasts of easy victory had been. The monsters and the abominations running in their direction were simply uncountable. Losing the northernmost part of the Vale had allowed the Others to replenish their ranks. Not by the thousands. By the tens of thousands. The first wave in the horizon was surely bigger than the whole Vale army, and it was far from everything the White Walkers were prepared to launch at them. Three big ice wyverns were flying over the horde, accompanied with hundreds of dead birds.

Ronnel's Pass was not the Bloody Gate, but it was not extremely large, barely ten horses could pass side to side at the largest point. Elaborate tactics in this narrow space would have been extremely difficult to plan for. The Others didn't even try. One single, horrible, shrieking shout of hate sounded somewhere in the distance, and the storm of wights came straightforward in a move the veterans of the Night's Watch, the Dornish and the Northmen had assisted in multiple battles.

It didn't make it less horrifying, however. For the men and women who assisted to this end-bringer spectacle, the corpses were emerging from the snow and the wind like nightmares, their blue eyes and their gloomy appearance demoralising before the first shot was fired.

Then humanity counter-attacked. The catapults threw incendiary projectiles in a coordinated move, starting a fire wave that carbonised the dead by the hundred. As the ground had already been soaked with highly inflammable oil and other products in judicious locations, the fire rose to an unprecedented intensity. For an instant, Ronnel's Pass was an inferno where nothing survived. The wights' first wave was disintegrated, with not even ashes remaining to attest they had once existed.

And then the second wave of the undead rolled in, pushed by the blizzard. One in five died to the remaining fires and the boulders, but like pressed by an unlimited folly, the thralls of the Others mounted to the assault. The first trench was crossed by the simplest stratagem: fill the gap with so many corpses there wasn't any gap at all. The archers shot thousands of arrows. Scorpions bolts and rocks from the siege engines shredded the mammoths and the giants. The birds died, falling in an impressive rain from the skies. Thousands of wights died at each turn of hourglass, and still the dead pressed on the soldiers of the Vale. The first animated corpses reached the first lines, only to be impaled on obsidian spears. The first duels started, and soon the first human lines were all engaged. All four trenches were more or less full of wights, immobile or moving, the whole pass was covered in enemies. The formations of the Vale were hard pressed by the sheer mass of the wights.

It was time to spring another trap. From the top of half a score supposed impassable cliffs, another series of boulders were precipitated on the abominations. Many were in stone. The remaining were much more dangerous, as they were in flames. After a short moment of stunning stupefaction when the Others had the opportunity to see by the eyes of their thralls what was going to happen, Ronnel's Pass went in flames for the second time of the day.

This time however the Night's Queen had no intention to allow the mortals facing her to have a break. On the top of her ice dragon, the leader of the Lands of Always Winter gave a command, and the ice dragon exhaled a torrent of frozen fire, killing every fire and the wights present in the passage. Too far for the ballista to shoot the dragon down, but close enough for the defenders to feel the aftershocks of the ice breath and shake in fear.

Just as the Valemen were finishing the survivors of the first wave, the second arrived like a hammer. An instrument of death, ice and malevolence. The White Walkers had better coordinated the offensive and placed more of their key units on the front. Large dead predators jumped over the rank of shields which had been already mangled. Plus in the crowd of undead, lone Others were hidden and revealed themselves at the worst moment possible. What had been until that point a very disciplined battle where the Unsullied and the Old Ghis legions would have found nothing to naysay completely changed. The tactics to stand at close quarters in firm lines were more and more useless. The infantry of House Hunter and Waynwood, who had moved in the vanguard, were fighting for their very lives. The group of the Last Alliance led by Jon Snow and Ygritte was in the heart of the melee, slaughtering scores of wights with the dragonglass. Despite this, it was clear the human army was losing ground.

But the Vale was making their enemies paid dearly for every piece of Vale soil conquered. The wyverns made an attempt to break the catapults in the hill, and were all killed by the archers with low losses. For every soldier who died, four or five wights went down with it.

And then the horns sounded in the distance. A lot of horns coming from every direction. Large dragon banners flew over the wind, announcing signs of the real reptiles reigning over the skies. Queen Daenerys Targaryen and her Essossi army had arrived. Five thousand Unsullied. Eight thousand Dothraki. Five or six thousand Freedmen, which had to be added to one thousand and five hundred Valemen who had had more distance to cover than the main Noble Houses.

War cries resonated and acclamations mounted. All these troops were fresh and brought plenty of dragonglass with them. Victory was still possible with twenty thousand more men, and it was not counting the dragons. For once Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion flew in a perfect formation, and delivered the dreaded dragonfire in the mass of wights. Before, there were thousands of wights. After, there was just the smell of roasted flesh. Of the dead thralls, there were no more traces.

And the Mother of Dragons was not the only one to arrive late to the battlefield.

From the impassable mountains, another army had taken position and now descended the slopes to fall on the surprised Others, completely caught by surprise by this new development. It was the clansmen of the Mountains of the Moon (including members of the Milk Snakes, Sons of the Tree and Sons of the Mist), led by Shagga of the Stone Crows and Chella of the Black Ears.

"HALF-MAN! HALF-MAN! FOR THE HALF-MAN AND FOR THE DAWN!"

From the Vale army and the rest of the men fighting there, a loud clamour mounted to answer.

"THE NIGHT ENDS!"

Lord Protector Yohn Royce charged with his cavalry, one axe in his hand and a sword in the other. The runes of the Lord of Runestone's armour burned of a golden fire, burning every wight and White Walkers daring to close the distance. The assault was so violent the wights which received it were slammed feet away, broken and unable to continue moving. The Faithful soldiers rallied and charged the hereditary enemy, rapidly followed by every soldier still able to wield his weapon. Caught between the dragonfire and the obsidian blades, the Others were simply massacred. Wights could no express fear, but their inhuman threats momentarily learnt for them. The ranks of the Winter forces, partially encircled, started to rout.

It was at that moment, sadly, that the defeat became unavoidable.

Perhaps the Night's Queen had thought that the wights would be able to win most of the battle by themselves on this day.

But if the ice queen had thought this in her preparations, it was not true anymore. Her ranks were routing. About half of her wights were gone. The aerial units were providing target practises for the dragons and the archers. The single White Walkers fighting were isolated and taken apart.

The Night's Queen gave the order. All her forces left in reserve, around fifteen thousand human wights, ten thousand White Walkers and uncountable dead animals were unleashed on the battlefield. And in a hurricane of ice and snow, the two ice dragons rose again from the ground they had landed, screaming their loud roars against their fire counterparts.

The alliance of Valemen and Targaryen soldiers had never seen anything like this. And for too many, they would never see it again. Except in the Battle of the Wall, the Siege of Winterfell and the Third Battle of Bear Island, the Others had rarely taken the field in vast numbers. In turn, it had made the human commanders who had not fought these battles optimist in their estimations of what would happen if the same thing happened to them.

Grave error.

When the first line Others entered contact with the horse-mounted Dothraki composing the van at an insane speed, the Essossi barbarians were stunningly annihilated in mere moments. Three thousand cavalry caught in the open out of siege engines range and slaughtered without mercy. No one had the time to react to save them. The bows and the daggers reigning on the Dothraki Sea proved useless.

Then it was the turn of the Vale army. Lord Yohn Royce did his best, but the formations were still in complete disorder when the first ice blades came. Two hundred Vale knights commanded by Ser Symond Templeton had tried to come to the rescue of the Dothraki in hot pursuit, but the Knight of Nine Stars arrived too late and now he was himself the target of the Walkers wrath.

Ser Symond Templeton didn't survive. Nor did any of his men.

The White Walkers butchered them all and fell upon the rest of the forces. Harlan Hunter died cut in half, quickly followed by Lord Kyle Egen and Lord Marq Breakstone. The best swordsmen of the Vale and Slaver's Bay clashed with the elite of the White Walkers, and the former were found wanting. Showing mastery far beyond what a mortal hand could show in two decades of training, the abominations tore apart the humans by the hundreds, becoming the very real incarnation of the Stranger's falchion.

Obsidian was well and good, and a score or two of White Walkers exploded in fragments. But in the overwhelming majority, these deaths were due to dragonglass arrows or long-distance projectiles. At close distance, the black material was simply not practical. Lord Yohn Royce, Commander Jon Snow, Nymeria Sand, Lord Horton Redfort and hundreds of others inspired their men to more and more acts of courage and valour.

It wasn't enough. Nothing was enough. The men, whether low-born or knights, were dying under the implacable death waves. Lord Nestor Royce died, taking a fatal blow to save his eldest child Albar. Lord Alyn Lipps was dismounted and perished fighting seven White Walkers at the same time.

In the skies, the affair was also taking a horrible turn. While at first Queen Daenerys Targaryen had taken the advantage, crippling the smaller ice dragon and forcing it out of the fight in an uncontrolled crash north of Ronnel's Pass, now the outcome was undecided. The Night's Queen had a bigger dragon, her sorcery, and thousand years of experience. The Mother of Dragons had just the numerical advantage. It could have led to a stalemate, if not for a major problem. A loud roar echoed in the mountains, columns of black fire erupted and every dead and living eye turned to the west.

Dreadwing had arrived.

And now the disaster was total.

Profiting from the lack of control the Targaryen Queen had over two of her dragons, Dreadwing grabbed Rhaegal and tore it apart. The green dragon, while not a small and gentle reptile, was completely taken aback by the sheer ferocity of the assault. The creature born from the Crow's Eye atrocious acts grabbed Rhaegal by the throat and never let it go before the agony was complete.

The Mother of Dragons had managed to hold her ground barely at three against one. Two versus one was a whole different matter. The ice reptile managed to catch Viserion's tail and mangled it so badly it would take years to heal. For the white dragon, this taste of defeat was more than enough. Viserion fled southwards, racing back to Dragonstone and ignoring all orders.

The Night's Queen turned her full attention to her last opponent...and honesty compels this author to say this battle was true a massacre...until Dreadwing changed once again the rapport of force by trying to devour the ice dragon's left leg.

A three way battle erupted in the skies of the Vale. Dreadwing. Drogon. And the ice dragon more and most Westerosi nicknamed Hellfrost after that day. The subtleties of the battle were lost on many participants, but what was clear was that all dragons were severely injured. Alas, if Dreadwing appeared to flee in the mountains and Drogon was ordered by his rider to retreat to the Gates of the Moon, the wounds of the fire-breathing dragons were far more important than the one delivered to the dragon of Night's Queen.

When Hellfrost plunged over the hill where the core of the Vale defence tried to resist, it was like a blue comet had come to smash the earth. The blast of magic and freeze was spectacular. It also doomed any prospects of victory.

Lord Lonnar Donniger, Lord Manfred Moore, Lord Gilwood Hunter disappeared in this colossal explosion, with a good part of their surviving cousins, armsmen, sworn swords and bannersmen. Lord Protector Yohn Royce received a massive ice shard in his right leg, shredding all the magical protections, and had to be saved by his sworn swords from the pale swords of the White Walkers.

The Dothraki having charged on the battlefield were all dead, sharing a tomb with most of the Freedmen. The Unsullied had fared better, but in this case it meant little. The elite eunuchs of Astapor had finally been challenged and it had been bloody: there were less than two thousand of them breathing on the battlefield.

And the human army routed.

Completely understandable after such a devastation, and anyway they weren't any more options to deal with a hostile dragon. More than twenty-five thousand men had died, the siege engines were no more, the traps had all crumbled the numbers of wights. Trying to save what they could, the lords still alive ordered the retreat to the Gates of the Moon, Redfort, Old Anchor, Runestone and the Bloody Gate, hoping their greatest fortresses would be able to hold for a time.

The Mountain clansmen stayed behind. Shagga of the Stone Crows and Chella of the Black Ears, with fifty of their last warriors, blockaded the last watchtower out of the pass with the corpses of friend and foes alike. In a series of war cries where the name of Tyrion Lannister and Half-Man figured prominently, the two clans leaders challenged the Night's Queen to come and fight them in personal combat.

Initially, it was refused. Hundreds of wights charged, generating a pile of dead bodies so high it was awful beyond measure. But as the dead thralls contributed to enlarge this improvised cemetery, the Night's Queen lost her patience. The last retreating men who assisted to this tragedy on the heights reported the inhuman sorceress dismounted her dragon and defied the last two men barring her the road to the path of the Vale.

Alas, neither Chella nor Shagga had a Valyrian weapon. With a disconcerting facility, the Night's Queen slain them and with these deaths the last living resistance was eradicated.

The Great Battle for the Vale, the Battle of the Frozen Tears had been fought...and lost. Now the Vale was going to crumble against the abominations of the Long Night.

A small hope remained. The forces of the Last Alliance were in the field and now racing from every direction to the rescue of the human realms.

The dragons had failed to stop the Long Night. For better or for worse, the fate of the world was going to be in humanity's hands...


	94. The Vale needs Heroes

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Vale, the Others, the Vale castles or the Long Night.

raw666: To be fair to her, Daenerys has been plunged into a lot of situations where she has little to no experience, help and advice. But the Queen is not completely out of the game...

X59: The wounds Hellfrost suffered during the battle are mostly superficial, save one of its leg where Dreadwing bit the ice dragon, this one is a bit more serious. But with battles in the sky, it is not that big a drawback for the moment.

Dreadwing is not going to stay absent for long. The black dragon is just licking its wounds, and will go back to spread chaos as soon as it is in its capabilities.

Guest: Thanks!

Paul: Matthos and Devan Seaworth survived the Battle of the Blackwater. The rest of Davos sons didn't. The wildfire did enormous damage to the Baratheon fleet. Non-wight giants...no, the species as a whole has been annihilated. They were priority targets in White Walkers 'recruitments'. No, Lord Corbray is going to be severely vilified, not redeemed. Have to search for the Fossoways.

Quentyn wasn't the only soldier to escape in the wild, there were dozens others who were hunted in the vicinity. He was recognised as the Prince once the description and the armour were transmitted back to an officer in the know, of course by that time it was too late for him. Fear not, there are plenty of Dothraki left, though there will be less than at the beginning of this story.

Glad you liked the choice of Hellfrost. We will go to the Free Cities at one point, yes. I'm unsure of when. The Vale volunteers were never 'big' names. Most of them were lowborn knights or sellswords, easily demolished in the first fights or never considered 'true' Valemen.

For the characters, I can't introduce everyone, not even if I wrote a 'classic' story. There are some choices which must be made and a lot of them are simply not enough important to be mentioned.

Sage of Wind Dragons: Good points. Yes, my intention was to demolish a bit the trope 'we have dragons, automatic win'. The Targaryen and Vale armies were too inexperienced and too green for the monsters of the Night's Queen. Westeros is sadly not a land known for its fairy tales.

Don't fear the 'fun' has just begun...

thepkrgmc: Exactly! Having weapons of mass destruction is well and good, but better have the instruction manual...

And now for the chapter...

 **The Vale needs Heroes**

 **Nightfall Part IV**

" _Would it be too much to ask for Azor Ahai NOW_?" Anonymous Braavosi sellsword, 301AC.

" _Your predictions are never going to realise, oh Dolorous. Let's make a book of them_." Black Brother Pypar, 301AC.

"Let's _pray the kings come before the Others_." Anonymous Vale knight, 301AC.

" _Have the gods abandoned us_?" Abandoned Vale soldier, 301AC.

" _We lost a battle, but a battle is not the war. Behind these walls, we will resist_." Commander Jon Snow, 301AC.

The disaster at Ronnel's Pass, the nightmarish defeat known as the Battle of the Frozen Tears, ended for all intent and purposes the Valemen effort to stop the Others offensive reaching the heart of the Vale. Not only the main army had been battered and pulverised, but Ronnel's Pass had been the last defence before the large valley in the mountainous kingdom where tens of thousands people lived for countless centuries.

It did not stop quite a few angry men to denigrate the massive war effort ordered by Lord Protector Yohn Royce several decades after most of the participants were dead and buried. According to these theorists, the Vale should have continued to fight tooth and nail for every feet of ground from the lost battlefield to the Eyrie.

This reconstruction of the events ignored practically all the facts on the ground. First, there was no way the soldiers having managed to survive the horrific battle could function as a coherent group after losing more than half of their numbers in a single day. Many armies in the War of the Eight Kings had taken an inferior proportion of casualties, and been utterly devastated in the process. When one in two men were lying dead on the field waiting for the Others to rise them as wights, the problem rose to incredible levels.

Another misconception the critics neglected to speak about was the issue the army broken at Ronnel's Pass had not been a unified command to begin with. It had been two armies, one commanded by Lord Protector Yohn Royce, the other obeying to Queen Daenerys Targaryen. By horse messengers, letter carried by ravens and other long-distance means of communication, the two leaders had managed to fight the same battle at approximately the same time. But it stopped there. There had been no plan written to tell what should be decided if the White Walkers took the pass and grabbed victory in a storm of ice and snow.

And after this there was the leadership problem. To tell the truth, the knights, officers and various commanders having fought at Ronnel's Pass had been truly slaughtered. Rallying your forces and trying to establish discipline in your ranks was well and good, but when the enemy was not human and an ice dragon was bombarding you with its ice breath from above, the chances of living were slim. Lord Protector Yohn Royce injuries prevented him from exerting command during six days (the Faith of Seven of course tried to lengthen this recovery by one), and the Mother of Dragons had fled the battlefield to find refuge at the Gates of the Moon.

Bereft of a great commander, the allied army of humanity splintered and divided in a spectacular rout. The proud and voluntary sacrifice of the Mountain clansmen allowed the soldiers to take a sorely needed advance, but it was not enough to reorganise and reunite. Where once forty thousand warriors had gathered, there were now about twelve thousand, and these men were in four separate groups plus a multitude of abandoned platoons trying to find salvation somehow.

In appearance, the first and most powerful group of infantry remaining in the field were the Unsullied, under Ser Barristan Selmy and with Grey Worm as second. With two thousand Unsullied, several remnants of Freedmen battalions plus a couple hundred cavalry and infantry of House Melcolm and House Waynwood, the Targaryen loyalists were retreating towards Old Anchor via Ironoaks, hoping for a second wave of Essossi reinforcements to come and boost their numbers.

At the same time, Lord Horton was marching home. The Lord of the Redfort had regrouped with his own forces, who to his credit had taken some of the less numerous casualties while inflicting thousands of deaths on the wights. Along with many Templeton, Lipps, Moore and other armsmen having lost their knights and their senior men-at-arms, the Redfort army rushed out Ronnel's Pass to the south of the Mountains of the Moon, confident their knowledge of the terrain and the defensive forts built during the last centuries could slow down the Night's Queen and her legions of undead.

The third group was commanded by Lord Eustace Hunter, who had risen to the lordship of Longbow Hall after the death of his eldest brother and the entirety of his House (many remarked afterwards that a deed which would have been suspected of nefarious assassination in normal circumstances was now considered 'normal' given that no Other offered quarter). The clansmen who had not stood with Shagga and Chella went with him, the Vale troops being a mix of Donniger, Hersy, Hardyng and Egen demoralised levies, veteran cavalry and grizzling sellswords.

And finally, recovering the bulk of the Royce escapees from the Battle of the Frozen Tears, were the armsmen and sworn swords of Ser Andar Royce, now assuming command in place of his father. It had in is numbers famous names like Commander Jon Snow, Nymeria Sand, Ygritte, Pypar, Edd 'Dolorous' Tollett, Ser Albar Royce, Lady Kellia Coldwater, Ser Donnel Waynwood, Lord Uthor and Ser Andrew Tollett, who had made sure humanity was not going to concede the Vale without a lot more battles. On the other hand, aside from these famous and infamous figures (Black Brother Pypar had by this point recruited a young knight to write the predictions of Edd Tollett, unwillingly creating the forbidden book Omens of the Dolorous) the morale and the equipment of the Vale army was falling to ruins. A large majority of the freshly recruited levies had been persuaded the fire dragons were going to deal with their ice counterparts, and this light had been dashed in the cruellest manner possible. The sun was seemingly gone forever. A lot of supplies and materials had been left behind in the rout. The temperatures were hellishly cold. The songs imagined by the bards in this dark period were melancholic and tear-breaking. _Fall of the Dragons_ , _Dark is the Dawn_ and _Where are the Falcons_ are the main examples to illustrate the despair plaguing the Valemen. The screams of those who fell behind and were massacred by the wights did not contribute to lighten the ambiance.

To make the spirits even darker, the army of the Vale was not the only thing that had to be saved by the commanders under Ser Andar Royce. The Others had entered the most populated lands of the East, and were now unleashed in an area where thousands of smallfolk lived, a large majority of them far away from any fortress of defensive position. Unlike the North, there was no plan to withdraw to a redoubtable citadel; the Northmen did the travel to their castles when winter came on them, but the great valley of the Vale was where the inhabitants hid from the cold winds freezing the Mountains of the Moon. And given how little warning the Royces and their allies had before mustering their bannersmen, the evacuation had never been seriously thought about, much less planned and done. When the White Walkers left Ronnel's Pass, the size of the disaster soon striking was unimaginable.

Every army sent its surviving horses in rescue missions to warn the knights left at home and the common Valemen that death was coming in this direction. Alas, they were not enough patrols and men left to tell everyone the Others arrived, and sometimes those who were begged to leave their homes refused, confident their palisade or a good masonry was solid and unbreakable. After the fall of the Wall and dozens of little and great redoubts, this was insanity at its finest, and these optimists joined the army of the Land of Always Winter when they attacked.

The Northerners and Dornish under Jon Snow did their best to burn all graves, send fire arrows on doomed villages, slowing a bit the rebuilding of the Night's Queen army. Each of the four major detachments moving in the former Arryn lands did their best, conscious the more wights and bodies that were denied to the maleficent witch, the less difficult it would be to reconquer what was lost.

But out of the range of these heroes, the resistance of the Vale crumbled, froze and died in the cold of the Long Night. The stocks of obsidians were only available to the large formations with hundreds of soldiers, the lone deserters and warriors lost in the blizzards had absolutely no chance when at the foot of a mountain the fog lifted to make them realise they were encircled by a platoon of ice warriors. When the wights rose from the tombs, an entire village of a hundred souls could be decimated in less time it took to say it. Sellswords and knights who had believed their walls and a good and exalting cavalry charge led to triumph were horrified when the enemy returned their own dead against them. For everyone, the fight against the Others was a harsh era. Forgotten with eight thousand years of absence, the White Walkers roamed in the night, and woe the slow learners. Against the abominations of the Long Night, it was kill or die, a selection process which left only the most determined to survive. The defeated disappeared into the ranks of the night, a dark wave nothing was able to stop.

For the men, woman and children racing towards the Bloody Gate and the Gates of the Moon, Longbow Hall and the Redfort, the situation was alarming. For the Targaryen forces and their allies retreating south, it was somewhat worse. Conscious her enemies had taken too much advance, the Night's Queen mounted Hellfrost and charged ahead, with the fastest ice spiders following on the snowy and hilly ground. Why exactly the Night's Queen chose to fix hr attention on this army was unknown and stayed that way. Perhaps the ice queen had been offended by the dragons and their banners, or thought the discipline of the Unsullied was a greater danger than the courage of the Royce bronze armours.

For the men having escaped death at the Battle of the Frozen Tears, it was a hellish vision as they had just managed to reach Ironoaks. The Unsullied and the Valemen were exhausted, to the point many had thrown away their weapons and their armours to have a chance at maintaining the speed. And Ironoaks could not be considered one of the major fortresses. House Waynwood financial difficulties in the last generations had led to disrepair and a smaller garrison than what should have been considered the norm for a Noble House. It went without saying that there were no siege engines able to strike a dragon here, and the obsidian stocked was ranging between very little and non-existent. Morale was also very poor, with the Essossi uncertain if their Queen was alive or not (the dragon battle had not been clear from the point of view of a ground observer) and neither Grey Worm nor Barristan Selmy were enough charismatic for the remobilisation. The Narrow Sea and Crownlands Houses, like Crabb and Celtigar, had been promised victory and now saw the Mother of Dragons outmatched in her own element. The second of wave reinforcements had not reached Old Anchor.

To sum-up, the conditions were all there for a massive defeat. When Hellfrost launched its first attack, the men and the refugees commanded by Ser Barristan Selmy were dispersed in and nearby Ironoaks, few bows were ready to shoot. The ice breath caused a massacre perhaps worse than at the Battle of the Frozen Tears. Crabb, Boggs and Cave and Pyne armsmen, the main forces left of the Crackclaw Point detachment, were annihilated, vaporised in a trail of ice breath so destructive no one was able to name the killed afterwards.

This time, the Unsullied found themselves experienced fear. No matter your training, contemplating Hellfrost as it opened its maw and ate the bodies of your own comrades was enough to reduce a soldier to a shivering wreck. And even if your mental health survived this challenge, it was not in the power of the Slaver's Bay armours to resist dragonice. There was also the fact Unsullied were the elite of the pikes formations all over the known world. Not bowmen. And to strike a dragon, a spearman was maybe not the worst choice, but it was certainly in the top twenty.

Hellfrost made four attacks, and four times the Targaryen loyalists proved unable to do the slightest amount of damage or slow him down. The Dothraki had been their long-range forces, complemented with the dragons, and both were now in default. Ser Morton Waynwood perished in the last wave of ice. The Essossi and the followers of the Mother of Dragons had enough. Ironoaks was partially covered in a frost so cold the men fell just by being nearby. Their acts in no way could change the outcome of this battle. And the scouts in the rear guard reported a column of ice spiders was closing in.

The soldiers of Queen Daenerys Targaryen ran for the second time in this turn of the moon, and this time all coherence was left until they reached Old Anchor. The cavalry, infantry, the farmers, the outlaws, the beggars and the merchants, all took their legs and tried to put the maximum of distance between them and the Night's Queen mount. Had Grey Worm or Ser Barristan Selmy been able to give orders, a possibility of salvaging something from this fiasco would have existed. One in a thousand. But the Unsullied general had been knocked out by a block of ice, his soldiers carrying aside the slaughter, and of Ser Barristan the Bold there was no trace. The last Kingsguard of Robert I Baratheon and the Targaryen dynasty had been to a meeting with some of his squires and the different commanders when Hellfrost descended to prey on the living. His fate remained unknown, though of course there are plenty of Targaryen supporters to this day who think the great knight was present at the Battle of the Last Alliance.

With Old Anchor having a small garrison and the eastern force in total confusion, there was nothing that could have stopped the Others to lay waste to the entire Southern Vale if a full attack had been made. But the Night's Queen had evidently other plans. Taking only the time to raise the dead as new reinforcements for her own forces, the White Walkers abandoned the pursuit of the vanquished Essossi and rushed westwards to the Gates of the Moon. Evidently, the abominations thought the little pockets of resistance could be dealt with after the Last Alliance was destroyed. For now, the White Walkers had far more urgent preoccupations.

Human armies were rushing to the Vale for one of the greatest battles of the age. The storms of winter intensified. Westeros stood at the edge of the abyss.

A time of dragons and monsters. A time for heroes...


	95. Victory at any price

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the North, Winterfell or the Others.

X59: Yep, the Vale did not fight a model war against the Others that's for sure.

Barristan the Bold...he is dead, but in this confusion of ice storms, no one saw him fall. The question is if it's the end for him? In the Second Long Night, the frontier between death and life is growing increasingly thin...

Paul: Belmore missed the battle, as they forced to keep all their forces at home, Strongsong being terribly vulnerable geographically to the White Walkers...but it was entirely bypassed. House Wydman was reduced due to their defeat in the civil war to a single member, and their troops were used like penal battalions. The Shetts had never that many warriors, and lost a lot at Gulltown, to the point they aren't a factor of consideration anymore. Well, that and I simply can't make a list of all the soldiers who were just killed...

For the giants, I made Wun Wun help Sam sound the Horn of Winter, and I feared after that any kind of action would be devaluated against this act of bravery. Many men after the battle fled on their own, and form their own little resistance groups. The big armies managed to gather a lot of soldiers, but not everyone.

Harold Hardyng never was the lord of the House Hardyng. He was a minor knight, whose real value was the Vale blood in him (that and Jon Arryn's other heirs were tragically slain or sick).

I'm still crunching on every army's numbers...there will be answers in the prelude for the big battles sealing the fate of the Long Night. House Cave joined when Daenerys was in the Riverlands and the news of the Others invasion became all the more real. Grey Worm survived and was transported to Old Anchor, and Anya Waynwood was already there.

Doran's role is never going to be clear, because the Sand Snakes at the moment have full control of the Sunspear archives. Guess how far the 'real' history is going to be modified...none of Oberyn's daughters have real reasons to feel friendly with Quentyn.

yesboss21: Rally the Five Forts? No. Those citadels that have not been wiped out by the flame warriors or are besieged and at the limit of their resistance. The victory in the Far East is not going to come from this direction...a lot of legends are going to be proved to have no basis in reality before the end.

thepkrgmc: Yes, hopefully...though it is the Gates of the Moon that must hold, the Eyrie themselves are more or less abandoned in winter.

 **Victory at any price**

 **The Battle of the North Part V**

" _The_ _North remembers. The Targaryens and the Lannisters learnt it. Now let's teach it to the Others!_ " Princess Arya Stark, 301AC.

 _The tales were right._

 _The Others exist, and the Night's Queen is no mere myth._

 _We should have listened the messenger of Winterfell. We thought we had the strength to fight the Others. We were wrong. We have failed our people._

 _My men have killed a score of wights, but it will not slow them down now. Bor is down to his last dragonglass arrow. No more wood to keep the fires high._

 _No help is coming. The other two watchtowers have been stormed, our friends and allies returned against us from the dead._

 _They are coming._

 _We can't hold anymore._

 _They are coming._

Last page of a book found in the ruins of the minor holdfast of Greenhaven in 303AC, words attributed to Ser Mors Greenhaven, 301AC.

" _Once again, Winter fell there_." Princess Sansa Stark, 302AC.

" _It is your fault. You abandoned us. We were humans, once.._." Tortured Other, 301AC.

" _This victory is going to cost us our souls_." Anonymous Dreadfort soldier, 301AC.

For the Others forming the core of the Night's Queen forces participating in the Second Long Night, the whole conflict had not been as one-sided or rapid as expected. There had been victories, yes. But there had also been severe defeats, crippling the numbers of a race which could not afford this kind of casualties in the long run.

Yet the Others saw no choice to continue. In multiple battles that were never seen or heard by humanity, the ice warriors trampled the human fortifications, hunted the survivors to the last and raised back their former enemies as wights. But there were other locations where the outcome was much less favourable for the abominations of the Land of Always Winter. Places like Winterfell.

Following their complete failure to storm the capital of the Northern kingdom, the White Walkers decided to mount their siege, encircling the Stark citadel out of range of the obsidian arrowheads. If the Other leader had had any idea how bad the situation was going to become for his army, perhaps he would have rushed to the south to unite with the forces of his ice queen and form a real threat.

But let's be grateful for the enemy huge mistake. While this combined force of monsters was camping outside Winterfell, it could not assault more holdfasts, devastate the Rills and the Barrowlands or support the remnants dispersed north of White Harbor.

And although this army had been at its largest extent potentially more powerful than the Night's Queen personal command (if one did not take into account the ice dragons), it was clearly no longer the case. By all reports, over three-quarters of the White Walkers having attempted to breach the walls of Winterfell were dead. The sorcerers had been severely diminished. The thousands of wights were burning in large flaming holes and pyres.

Except the last category, these missing troops could not be easily replenished. Nevertheless, the dead thralls were proving harder to 'recruit'. By that point, every Northern lord having the barest amount of intelligence burnt his corpses and those of the enemy, recent or old. In return, an Other had to sometimes travel hundreds of leagues to find a battalion of wights, and this necessary travel exposed them to all sorts of misadventures and ambushes.

The Night's Queen may have a big dragon, but her lightning offensive past the Wall and into the North had bypassed a lot of Northern and Free Folk resistance. Whether these men and women were troops having travelled too slowly to reach the Wall in time for the big battle, deserted when the work of Brandon the Builder was breached, had wilfully stood on the sidelines while their liege lords bled and died, or in the wildling cases chose to flee southwards before the hammer fell was interesting, but not very important for the short-term.

In strategic terms, it meant the back of the Others surviving in the North were under attack. In raw numbers, it wasn't that bad. Losing one or two wight per day was insignificant when your army was tens of thousands strong.

Except the remnants of the North weren't the only issues. In the mountains, Lord Daryn Hornwood continued to block the raids targeting the home of the Mountain Clans. A few minor Knights and Houses living in lands sworn to Deepwood Motte sent extermination patrols to skirmish in the woods, the majority of their forces still being required to keep Bear Island strong and out of the enemy hands.

And then there was the direwolf pack. Gathered by Nymeria, Princess Arya's bonded direwolf, the greatest pack predators of the North had developed a particular loathing of the White Walkers, and acted upon it. Enemies of all life, any lone Other who dared venture without an appropriate escort out of their icy camps discovered themselves perishing under the fangs of the enraged pack.

Sensing the rapport of strength was alarmingly passing on their besieged opponents, the ice warriors leaders decided their only chance of success was lying in a second full assault against Winterfell. Already, there were reports of a relief column mounted by Lord Wyman Manderly up the White Knife. Tyrell reinforcements had also landed at Barrowton, removing Lady Barbrey Dustin of her title and duties on the charges of treason. While the preparations to repulse Others would have been adequate had an attack materialised itself, King Robb Stark and his main bannersmen had not appreciated their ravens and messengers being ignored or outright ordered to turn back. All the troops from Barrowton so far had been volunteers, and in the mind of the Last Alliance commanders it was a fact that sorely needed to change.

Under Ser Garth 'Greysteel' Hightower, two thousand men were fraying themselves a path to Torrhen's Square, massacring the few wights who crossed their path.

For the White Walkers, time was running out. In a fortnight or so, the ice beings were going to be caught between the warhammer of the Northern and Reach warriors and the anvil of the Winterfell furious veterans. All armed with obsidian weapons. No need to be a great strategist to guess how it was going to end. Only one option left: breach the defences commanded by Lady Dacey Mormont. Large numbers of human wights with ladders, ballista and trebuchets advanced. The surviving ice wyverns were prepared. The dead animals, the ice crystals, the bird corpses...everything that might give a chance to storm Winterfell was gathered.

Naturally, it was inhuman mentality at its worst point. This muster could not escape the vigilance of the wargs in the defender ranks, including Princess Arya Stark. A turn of hourglass later after the Others had taken their fateful decision, the Northerners, Free Folk and Riverlanders were rushing in the armoury, preparing their bows and intensifying the warmth of the flames. The welcome was going to be hellishly hot.

What the Others had forgotten too was the issue they had lost most of their shock and awe effect by this point in the Second Long Night. By failing to take the ancestral capital of the Kings of Winter, the myth of invincibility had been shattered. Every soldier in Winterfell believed victory was achievable, and ready to send back the Others to whatever Hell they had crawled back from.

To say the second Battle of Winterfell did not conform to the Others plans was a gross understatement if there ever was one. The garrison of Winterfell waited for the first lines of wights to be well into their optimal range, letting their enemies believe momentarily they had achieved tactical surprise, which might not have been that far-fetched as the ice sorcerers were using a snow storm to mask their army movements. Rapidly, the ladders approached the wall. The scorpions were dragged by large animal wights and dozens of human undead.

Ser Patrek Mallister gave the signal, and the butchery started. The Northmen had not as much arrows and projectiles to spare than in the first assault, but the wights present were not as numerous as during the first storming too. Once again, the dead were greeted by a storm of fire, the wights lacking the self-preservation instincts not to touch those surrounding them and propagating the inferno. The regular White Walkers rushing to the ramparts were thrown two or three dragonglass arrows per head, and did not last that long.

It was a sadly repeating performance for the humans assisting to this carnage. But Lady Dacey Mormont, Princess Arya Stark and Ser Patrek Mallister were under no illusion the assault was going to last hours. The resilience and the sheer stubbornness of the White Walkers were not the ones of mortal men.

The turning point happened without a warning sign. An instant, the greatest part of the wights were trying to climb the installed ladders, with the Others warriors taking deadly shots here and there at the defenders with extraordinary powerful ice longbows and rays of ice magic. The moment after, the Others army routed.

The best explanation found many turn of hourglasses after the deed, was that one archer had killed the Other commander, though no one had any idea who was responsible, given that in these precarious weather conditions, an Other was very much indistinguishable from the rest of its species.

Deprived of a commander, being rapidly bled to death by the resistance of the defenders and seeing no path to victory, the beings of the Lands of Always Winter fled for their lives.

Unfortunately, the Winterfell garrison was in no shape to organise a pursuit, tired, out of breath, and forced to exterminate first the wights charged by their ruthless masters to mount a suicidal rear-guard delaying action.

It was nonetheless a great victory. When the Manderly and Tyrell broke through the last cordon of wights preventing them to rescue Winterfell, it was to learn the Siege had ended three days ago.

Once passed the euphoria of the victory celebration however, the Last Alliance contingents were plagued by interesting dilemma. First of all, who was going to command and what was the next objective? The Manderly relief force had been a mix of Frey infantry, Mallister cavalry, Manderly levies and Essossi sellswords. The Winterfell defenders had Free Folk, Riverlanders and Northerners in their ranks. Ser Garth Hightower had brought with him a large coalition of knights, some of them showing little dispositions to listen the wishes of Oldtown and Highgarden.

The goals of this alliance were as diversified as the numbers of factions in it. The most prudent knights and officers wanted to stay on the defensive and wait for the end of the battles in the South before committing their men to a new offensive. Those of an offensive mind, chief among them Princess Arya Stark, wanted to pursue without waiting the Others (some might argue this process had already started with the direwolves relentlessly hunting the escaping abominations).

Not everyone shared these views. Many Northerners had not been born at Winterfell and to them their home villages rescue passed before any hypothetical vengeance, no matter how satisfying.

The Dreadfort, Hornwood and Deepwood Motte might be considered in no risk of falling, but there were dozens of settlements, small forts and nomadic tribes that had not been heard since the Wall fell. Located in the Wolfswood or in the wilderness west of the Broken Branch River, there were subjects of the King in the North in danger of being overrun. The debates were hard and long, but in the end the different leaders gathered at Winterfell agreed to disperse to throw out the Others from the nearby invaded areas immediately, leaving the White Walkers 'only' pursued by the direwolves and several vindictive hunters. As a result, most of the ice beings presence south of Long Lake would be annihilated in a matter of fortnights.

This was not the only sector where the Second Long Night faltered. In the western mountains, Lord Daryn Hornwood and his band of clansmen triumphed over their enemies, the latter recognising at last they had no chance to eradicate the resistance when the terrain advantage gave the former the possibilities to wipe out the equivalent of entire regiments each moon.

At Karhold, the White Walkers at last launched a column in the direction of the Karstark household. They were promptly defeated, massacred and burnt.

These victories could not make the Last Alliance forget the terrible price paid for them. For every castle saved, ten or so villages had been wiped out to the last child. For every Other slain, it was likely a hundred smallfolk had been slaughtered by the monsters. But compared to the darkest reveal in the dungeons of the Dreadfort, these awful news were nothing.

The quasi-totality of the information torn away from the White Walkers mouth is said to be contained in the _Chronicles of the Enemy_ , of which there are two works remaining (the rest were burnt by several sects of fanatics as everyone knows), sealed in the Summerhall and Winterfell vaults and heavily restricted in access (so much none in the last decade has been granted this honour). But a few sentences came out to the general from the tortures the Dreadfort experts inflicted on the Others.

"It is your fault. You abandoned us. We were humans, once..."

As the Vale plunged into the darkness and great armies rushed to stop the Night's Queen before all was lost, the men and women of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros started to really understand the price which was going to be required for ultimate victory.

For the lucky ones, it would be death, far away from their loved ones, lying forever in the frozen fields of the Mountains of the Moon.

For the others, it was going to be far worse.

When Gods are playing their own games, souls are the tributes demanded...


	96. Asshai Burns

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Yi Ti, Asshai or the diverse Far Eastern cultures.

X59: It is, it is. Though Craster delivered his sons hundreds of years after the first Other was born.

Lady Dustin's treason is very real because she did...actually nothing. That's the problem. Every time Robb sent summons or orders, Barbrey did her best to ignore them. In peace time, it would be grave. As the Others try to kill every human they see and where the smallest help is welcome, it can be considered betting on the defeat of humanity. Everyone has to fight against the Others. That only volunteers came from Barrowton was a big failing of her duties as a vassal of Winterfell.

Paul: House Greenhaven was invited by me and only me (grin). I own the rights in my imagination and all of that. Who gets Barrowton will be decided after the war. A castellan has been named, and Robb knows there will be a lot of claims for such an important Northern city.

Kellia Coldwater is the (fictional) surviving daughter of Lord Royce Coldwater.

Will have to check the Houses in question, but on the field many penal battalions are not existing anymore, they are more like platoons in size and they are fighting with the rest of the men. The Battle of the Frozen Tears has generated such massive casualties no one is really sure how many men survived in all, with the dispersal of different forces and the ravens being half of the time too frozen to travel and deliver their messages.

House Ryswell is going to do their best to affirm they had no part in Barbrey disloyalty. They want Barrowton too...Omens of the Dolorous has extremely dangerous prophecies inside its pages. Some of them having not been realised at the moment the author writes this book.

Good point on House Hardyng, but since they are in the Noble Houses category in the wiki, Ii decided to treat them as such.

yesboss21: The White Walkers in question were captured at Battle of the Dreadfort, forced to enter a circle of obsidian weapons at the point of Valyrian Steel and more dragonglass weapons. To fight their cold, you better not have a lot of furs and clothes layer to keep you warm. As for lore, well the Boltons have torture weapons in obsidian...

After eight thousand years, the majority of the records and the artefacts are lost. And for those who are located with precision, they are often behind the enemy lines.

Okay, let's worship ducks!

raw666: For some, it is going to be pure denial. After all, how cab the word of an Other be trusted? There will be lords and thinkers more pragmatic than this, but given the Others are doing their best to do a human genocide, a large majority will not want to consider these monsters former humans, no matter how long ago and how tenuous the connection is.

thepkrgmc: Ah, that is a question the Last Alliance commanders are going to pose a lot of times when this conflict is over...

ProCannonFodder: Thanks, I find the prospect of myself as professor hilarious in the extreme. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ahem.

 **Asshai Burns**

 **Tales of the Long Night Part III**

" _These mountains were impassable. So they went under them to surprise us.._." Disabused Winged Man, 303AC.

" _Truly this battle was a tragedy. Or a comedy. I can't truly decide.._." General Guo 'the Cheater ' Zhong, 301AC.

" _Sometimes I fear our commanders were insane during the War for the Dawn. Then I look at the Yi-Tish generals. And my faith comes back_." Prince Rickon 'the Wild Wandering Direwolf' Stark, 321AC.

" _Lesson one of war: don't attack Asshai. Ever_." Empress Vhaela Targaryen, 330AC.

" _Watch insects. This is power_!" Megalomaniac Asshai sorcerer confronting a demoniac army, 301AC.

" _The Night is upon us in flames and blood! Repent heretics_!" Anonymous prophet's last words before being lynched by a mob at Yin, 301AC.

" _Let me show you how a sorcerer dies_!" Last words of an Asshai shadow-bender, 301AC.

Even by the most optimistic views, the war in Yi-Ti was not going well when a year died to let the place to a new one. It was now three hundred and one years after Aegon's Conquest (though of course the Yi-Tish used a different calendar), and most of the local population having enough information to see the global tapestry wondered openly if there was going to be anything left of the Empire and the Far East in three hundred-plus days.

To be honest, the wheel of time could have turned in a rather less desperate position. The majority of Cao Chai forces, by now acknowledged in death as a Yellow God-Emperor of insanity and monsters, were wiped out, burnt and slaughtered. Pol Qo, the Orange God-Emperor pretender, was dead too, having fallen at the hands of Cao Chai. With the news of the Five Forts coming under assault and being breached by monstrous beings intent to exterminate humanity, surely mortal heroes were going to come out of the jungles to take the fight and save this world.

Alas, it was the opposite which happened.

Some four hundred leagues west of Yin, a man pretending to be the eldest son of Pol Qo was proclaimed God-Emperor by five thousand troops. No doubt realising his chances of being recognised as the legitimate claimant were weak following the carnage having just occurred, Pol Peng and the survivors of what had been mighty legions turned their back to the cries of help mounting everywhere, and started a march in direction of Asabhad, pillaging and raiding the villages unfortunate to meet their retreat. There was a second Orange God-Emperor, and he would come back. Promise.

In the east, the band of murderers and man-beasts who had served Cao Chai divided in multiple warbands. Fear of their master had kept in line for the long months of campaign, but now that the maleficent sorcerer was dead, nothing could stop their fragmentation and the feuds to be settled in bloody battles. The Yellow armies waged war on each other, ravaging the lands, poisoning the harvests and the water sources, unleashing their last magical powers in futile attempts to gain inexistent powers.

Plagues and diseases struck Yi-Ti during this period of darkness. Anything but surprising, given the terrible damages struck by all the sides on the cities architecture, the pumps and the canals. Healers and women having the knowledge and the will to help their neighbours were forced to march with the armies or perished to prevent their opponents to acquire their services. The curses and spells, badly understood at the best of times, took a crippling toll upon every sector of the Yi-Tish society. Prophets and cultists appeared everywhere, justifying the end of times by strange ideologies which had neither tail nor head. Fear and terror reigned everywhere, town and settlements trembling at the very idea of deserters coming and committing unimaginable atrocities.

The Azure forces, badly weakened, could not restore orders nor provide the help many of their far-away commanders demanded. Lan Mu the Blue Dragoness took her army upon the field and won according to several reliable Leng witnesses twenty-six battles in nine moons, but this light was only provided by her peerless strategic skills, and the chaos spreading would have required a hundred more to have a chance at containing it. Loyal garrisons and generals mutinied and became warlords. Bereft of any incontestable claimants, the last Princes alive made their claims known, and facing the general refusal of the Azure important officers, crowned themselves God-Emperors.

By any reasonable account, this civil war and the atrocities going with it could have entered without question the ten most destructive conflicts ever waged by humanity without trying. Order was a long forgotten memories. Law and hope were disappearing, with only the law of the strong being imposed by the axes, swords and spears of the destructors.

But it was only the prelude before the end. Having taken two of the Five Forts, the flame demons were now pushing westwards, and the inferno did not wait long reaching the humans lands. The Swamps of Kai Lai, south of the Bleeding Sea, convulsed and boiled before vanishing against the onslaught of flames and ashes. The eight cities of the Toqui province, including Toqui itself, were sacked and razed in spite of a fanatical resistance formed by the Yi-Tish 4th Legion. More than three hundred thousand warriors and civilians burned in agony.

From an outside perspective, it was easy to blame these defeats on the disunity and the lack of central command. After all, half a world away the Westerosi had managed to seriously weaken the Others numbers when the time came to defend the Wall. Yet things were not that simple. Earlier in the war, the North had learnt of the weapons having the precious ability to kill the ice warriors: Valyrian Steel, dragonglass, the fangs of a direwolf and later, modified wildfire and dragonfire.

The Yi-Tish had not these weapons in their arsenal, and even if they did, it would have been far-fetched to think such fire-aligned weapons would have inconvenienced abominations taking their power in the core of the flames and lava. The human turned thralls of the fire abominations could be defeated with swords and spears though the process was long and arduous: while these damned humans were no wights and didn't continue to fight if they were decapitated, they did not appear to feel pain at all. As a result most had to be dismembered or see their head remove in a single strike; otherwise a lengthy fight was these creatures greatest advantage, as they felt no fatigue.

But for their masters emerging from the ashes, there appeared to be no path to victory. By thousands or tens of thousands, the Enemy came and overwhelmed everything. Terrifying catapults of flames threw their deadly projectiles over the greatest fortifications. Legions of some unknown reptile species rushed to the gates in a flame storm, carelessly throwing their existence away to distract a mere moment the defenders. The fires everywhere returned themselves against their creators. The air became non-breathable with ashes rains.

The weapons of steel proved completely useless, breaking against the skins and the magic of these demons of old returned to burn Essos. Ceremonial swords, supposedly forged millennia ago with their diamonds, emeralds and rubies, did no better, proving that either their magic had left the metal long ago, or they were prestigious fakes. Tactically, once one side had proven they could not hurt the main strength of their adversaries, the issue was not debatable. Humanity burnt.

Descending the Yang Zi river, the demons ravaged and killed anyone having not the good sense to flee. It was only at Nan Hi that the flame abominations suffered their first major reverse. The city had been massively reinforced under the order of General Wai Liu, the man who by now was ruling more or less by himself the Azure war effort. And to command the legion many believed the assassin had sent to certain death, were Yu Fei the Buffoon and Guo Zhong the Cheater.

The Battle of Nan Hi, or, as memory retains it in Essos and the other continents, the Battle of the Feeble Wits, was a succession of huge blunders, random acts of heroism, genius and pure idiocy on both sides. Still today, the strategists studying it can't understand how such a ridiculous and brainless plan managed to succeed with half of its objectives accomplished. Yu Fei was widely credited to march alone and unaided in the enemy camp with an improvised torch on his head and bringing ice wines, a rather poisonous plant of the deepest part of Yi Ti jungles, that revealed to be a major weakness of the flame warriors. Guo Zhong managed to lead three night raids on the abominations and disorganise their formations so much thousands of their thralls charged in the ranks of their burning masters.

Of course, humans being humans and demons being not infallible, these legendary actions were preceded and succeeded by a lot of senseless bloodshed and dramatic errors in the field. From the flame beings launching their armies in headlong charges similar to their ice counterparts when the enemy proved it could kill them, to Yu Fei serving alcohol to his men when the battle was not yet over, this mighty clashes of arms devolved into multiple fiascos, and if the humans won at the end, it was more because their enemies had made more mistakes than extraordinary competence.

Ultimately, Nan Hi remained under Azure ownership, though with most of their ramparts and towers molten, three-quarters of the garrison dead and the stocks of ice wines nearly non-existent, Yi Ti had really missed total disaster by a finger or two.

But it was not a salvation. The demons had been repulsed and bloodied, but twenty days later General Qi Ji the Uncertain suffered a massive defeat, cornered with all his men by an immense force of monsters near the frontier separating Yi Ti and the plains of the Jogos Nhai.

The nomadic tribes were already mustering to answer this threat but arrived too late to save the Yi-Tish, their rivalries in choosing a proper jhattar having been debated for hundreds of days. Qi Ji and most of his army were ashes in the wind when the cavalry arrived, and the Jogos Nhai retreated in face of the triumphant fire armies. One of the gear heroes had died meeting the ancestral enemy. He would not be last. Cavaliers groups by the thousands answered the Call of Jhattar Lhaena, not only mustering one of the greatest mounted army seen in thousands of years, but threatening with uncountable skirmishes and delaying actions the core force of the demons, preventing the greatest fire sorcerers to advance too deep in the heart of Yi-Ti.

But for the onslaught against Asshai, no warning of the demons intentions was given. Busy to fight a particular awful civil war, it would have been unlikely to say the least any sorcerer would have paused a moment searching means to slaughter his 'colleagues' to consider seriously the threat. Asshai was located at the extreme point of the Shadow Peninsula. To reach it, one had to take a ship, because it was clearly the only way. Marching through the Shadowlands meant traversing a landscape of night and despair, corrupted by sorcery. No food or drink were available, none a human could swallow and live anyway. The valleys were according to the rumours infested with parasites and monsters, descendants of magical experiments having badly turned or the horrifying result of a long forgotten sorcerer battle. To their north were the Mountains of the Morn, the second greatest mountain range of Essos after the Bones Mountains. At several thousand feet of altitude, the only way to pass this obstacle was to fly, and no one had been able in millennia to evade the vigilance of the Winged Men. No, Asshai was perfectly safe from any outside threat, mortal or demonic. And the magical practitioners went back killing their opponents joyously.

The problem, and that was one point many had missed, was the issue of the demons being attracted by the use of magic. Or perhaps it was not exactly accurate. Sensing any kind of sorcery was an ecstasy for the master of flames, giving them a thirst that for the humans was found in drugs, wine and sex.

If the large massacres in Yi-Tish were a lighthouse, then Asshai was a monumental beacon of light in the darkness, torturing the demons by its simple existence. Unable to climb the mountains, the demons could not stand their low temperatures, the avalanches and the snow, the intelligence behind these evil forces had an idea which would shock the forever. If passing over the mountains was impossible, then they would pass under. It was estimated that months or possibly years before the Five Forts were devastated, the tunnels (which would make the construction of the Wall look like a minor endeavour) saw their overtures built. With magic, machineries and forges such as the world had never seen, the demons drilled the rocks and the stones at the edge of the Dry Deep, creating artificial caverns the size of Casterly Rock. The passages were of course impassable for any human, slave or free. The tunnels, once drilled, were partially dripping of molten lava.

On hundred of leagues, several hundred sorcerers put their drilling spells and constructions at full power. Direction: full south. Their target? Asshai. Their numbers? Hundreds of thousands.

By the point this unconceivable plan approached its final stages, Asshai civil war was calming a bit. Not because the sorcerers, shadow-binders, enchanters, warlocks and others had realised violence solved nothing, but because they were progressively lacking slaves and non-sorcerers to power their spells and make the city function somewhat. It was only a cease-fire. The arrival of a Leng pirate fleet, bringing thousands of potential victims, signified the hostilities were soon going to resume.

It was in this atmosphere of murder and upcoming massacre, the flame beings arrived. Their arrival was spectacular, of that there is no doubt. Asshai was continually plunged the shadows, and the war had intensified the darkness. One moment it was true. The other, a nearby mountain above the city exploded similarly to a volcano, spreading lava and ashes on thousands of leagues. From the cone of the created overture, the abominations came in burning waves.

The sorcerers and all the living inhabitants of Asshai realised for a second how badly they had under-estimated the Great Enemy. Then they counter-attacked. Three wizards combined their forces, unleashing a massive storm of lightning and ice on the monsters. On the ramparts, shadows materialised and plunged in the abyss to challenge the flames. In an instant, the sorcerers unleashed all their frustrations and their rage at the same target. It was an apocalypse. The sea boiled in fury. The clouds were shredded, with the sky itself taking unnatural colours. Abominations, these ones created by the mind and the bodies of mortal men, roamed the battlefield. The elements were canalised and mustered in forms violating the veil of reality. Unprepared minds became simply crazy, and took down their own lives, believing there was nothing that could save their souls now.

And in the middle of this magical storm, the flame demons advanced. Their numbers had been hammered so high the only question was how many hundreds of thousands had been slain by dark magic. But like the flames and ashes imbuing them, they seemed to come back after each wave more and more numerous.

The ramparts and the defensive positions were pulverised one by one. Their magic taking a hard toll after so many others, many shadow-binders and enchanters found themselves at the mercy of their enemies, devoid of force. Some tried to throw cataclysmic spells in their last breath, with severe consequences when the abominations didn't slain them down in time. A minority fled, commandeering their private ships to cross the straits to the Ulthos continent. A majority barricaded their temples, houses and towers, ready to kill the maximum of demons before they went down too.

It was in this scenario of doom and despair that a wizard whose name will never be known to history sacrificed himself to power a last attack. A column of fire mounted to the heavens, and in a monumental explosion a quarter of Asshai was reduced into rubble. A maelstrom formed in the skies...letting the sun appear for two minutes before the dark clouds partially recovered the damage that had been inflicted.

But it was enough.

Tens of thousands abominations were annihilated by this sudden turn of fate, and the light of the sun froze in statues tens of thousands more forever. The few that lived ran to the tunnels for their inhuman lives. It was at this occasion their name was finally decided by the last living humans. Shai'tans.

Asshai had burnt...but humanity had resisted to the end. And now, the battle to decide the fate of Yi Ti and uncountable millions beckoned...


	97. Run to the Bloody Gate

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Bloody Gate or the diverse Westerosi factions forming the Last Alliance.

X59: Thanks! A bit of it is no doubt the Westerosi trying to compare Yi-Ti to Westeros and find them wanting, but it's true unity is always better in the hard moments than the bitter warfare in a burning house.

Paul: The Shai'tans sort of bypassed the last three Forts, but their garrisons are half-roasted, half-exhausted, so they didn't take much of a risk here.

Moons are months in Planetos, so nine months. Lan Mu won twenty nine victories in that much time. In nine days, you really must have a lot of incompetent enemies converging on your position to remain undefeated.

Forgot for House Mullendore. I will take the former...it is difficult to keep trace of everyone in Westeros, to be honest.

Understood the point about the Giants, but I will let things stand as they are. Undecided for House Costayne, I will have to decide when the dust settle their exact status.

The eventual fates of the Essossi Free Cities are not going to be pleasant or free of conflicts, but some will survive...eventually.

yesboss21: Mossovy and its forests are right now in flames, and much of their inhabitants dead or subjected to thralldom. The demon hunters made a valiant resistance...but it was doomed from the start given the numbers the Shai'tans had.

They had some degrees of warnings, which made them build a few defences and send away the persons not able to contribute to the fight. But the Five Forts didn't stop the abominations, Mossovy and the rest had no chance. East of the Bleeding Sea there are not many creatures alive and free. N'Ghai is next on the list, not that it is that powerful, this kingdom is only a shadow of its past.

Rhagar: Thanks for the review. Yes we are going to see more 'divine' interventions before and after the final battle. Though some might not be from the Seven-Who-Are-One...

By my most pessimistic estimations, there are less than ten chapters left before the end of the war. I'm tending towards five, but I've been wrong before so it's just a rough guess.

Asha has made a lot of enemies, yes. The aftermath of the Long Night is going to be rough for the Ironborn.

Oh, and of course the title is not the correct one. It will be something far greater (grin)!

raw666: Thanks for the compliment.

Sage of Winds Dragons: Don't forget that at the beginning of this story there was a grand total of zero fire dragons. Right now there are three alive. It's a neat progress.

Fighting the humans for the Others is a learning experience. They had believed that overwhelming waves of wights and key duels against enemy commanders would be largely enough to pulverise humanity. This view has proven to be extremely optimistic, and now they have to improvise.

thepkrgmc: The Asshai mages are indeed badass. Now think about the behaviour of the Westerosi in canon. Do you think they are behaving better than the Yi-Tish?

And now let's go back to the frontlines in Westeros...

 **Run to the Bloody Gate**

 **The Last Alliance Part III**

" _Yes...with speed and cover, we could go to the Gates of the Moon and join our forces to the Lord Protector and his banners. And yes, the Gates of the Moon are a more defensible position than our own in the Bloody Gate. I don't dispute this. But question this, my lords: what are we going to do if we lose a battle there? Fly? Because it's the only way to get out of this ravine..._ " Lord Rickard Karstark, explaining his decision to hold his position at the Bloody Gate, 301AC.

" _What we have is not an army. What we have is a curious shamble of everything having fought at one time or another the Lannisters, ready to fight each other as soon as the Others are not a threat. That's to what Westeros is reduced to_." Lord Garlan Tyrell, 301AC.

" _I told you this Viper was going to be trouble..._ " Lord Richard Horpe, 301AC.

" _Massey, shut up_!" Nearly everyone at one point or another in the Last Alliance army, 301AC.

When the Night's Queen and her multitude of horrors escaped on their iceberg fleet to land southwards in the Vale, the temptation had been high for the Northerners, Stormlanders and other Westerosi commanders to abandon all pressing affairs and follow them to finish the destruction started by Tyrion Lannister and continued in front of White Harbor.

Wiser heads prevailed in the end however. The subsequent naval defeat the White Walkers delivered to the Braavosi fleet proved it had been the correct decision. No matter what happened on land, a sea battle would be an extremely perilous enterprise, one it was probable the Last Alliance was not going to survive. The warships of Braavos had been widely recognised as the most powerful and swift of the Narrow Sea, crewed by the best sailors of the known seas. The few dozen Manderly ships undamaged at White Harbor were not going to succeed where they had failed.

Even learning the Others escape to the seas was over with a landing on the Vale was no comfort. While a small group could and did cross the Bite without attracting the attention of the Night's Queen and her monstrous dragon, transporting a full army in secret, cavalry, infantry and siege engines altogether, was outright impossible. And if Hellfrost caught the Last Alliance on wooden ships where its ice breath was impossible to escape, it would be a devastating defeat.

Moreover, the north of the Vale was (and still is for that matter) a very mountainous area, where in winter and with the civil war just ended supplies were short and difficult to find. Only one other force of two hundred men was ordered to follow Commander Jon Snow's group and provide assistance, and the fact the historians still haven't pinpointed the exact fate of these men at the time the author is writing this book makes clear how bad conditions were in that area.

There was only one strategic choice left. The Northerners, Dornish, Stormlanders, Reachers and all the other nations and companies represented had to charge down the Neck and hope to reach the Bloody Gate before the defeat of the Vale was total. Said like this, it seemed relatively straightforward; in the actual conditions where snowstorms raged and the men were exhausted, it was a nightmare for the quartermasters and the ordnances. Don't read the _Life and Times of Justin Massey_ for a reliable witness of these trying preparations: the knight in question passed half of its time in it aggrandising his achievements and vaunting in the glory he was about to find later.

Messengers rushed on horsebacks, on black wings and foot to transmit the order for the armies to rally at the westernmost and impregnable Vale castle. There was no reason to keep behind the reserves anymore. If the Others managed to get through in the Riverlands, the Night's Queen and her sorcerers would have potentially hundreds of thousands wights to raise along the tens of thousands they were busy reanimating in the Vale after the Battle of Heart's Home and the Frozen Tears. From there, the Others would be unleashed in the former Crownlands, the Reach and the Stormlands, as there was no natural barrier save the Blackwater Rush for humanity to defend behind.

This nightmarish scenario had to be prevented at all costs.

Fortunately, King Stannis Baratheon and King Robb Stark had soldiers garrison closer than their main forces ready to act. The third echelon of reinforcements, commanded by Lord Rickard Karstark, had been close the partially rebuilt Darry fort, searching for clues where Prince Oberyn Martell and his fellow Dornishmen had escaped, when the news came of the strategic change. Abandoning immediately the hunt for the Red Viper, the Lord of Karhold and his son Torrhen marched four thousand men, cavalry and pikes, to the pass leading to the Bloody Gate.

They were the only ones to start their march, just the closer formations. At Seagard, Garlan Tyrell rallied the majority of the fighting men of his fleet and the Seagard garrison, plus the left-over of the Twins and the banners sworn to the Freys. At Riverrun, Ser Brynden Tully armed the few Riverlanders who knew which point of a weapon was sharp. At Maidenpool, the men of Ser Wendel Manderly formed an impressive and improvised wooden bridge with dozens of the barges usually feeding their home town of fishes and crabs. From the West, came Lady Asha Greyjoy and most of the surviving strength of the Ironborn and the Westerlands, the Brotherhood of the Hound and the last Lannisters. And across the entirety of the Riverlands, an unexpected muster rallied. There were former deserters of the doomed armies of Ser Jaime and Lord Tywin Lannister, starved bandits and lone survivors of levies thrown too soon in the cauldron of war.

Hundreds of men reported having experienced the same dream: a golden warrior majestic of divine stature pressing them to take the arms and march to the defence of the Vale. A last chance to regain their honour and satisfy the oaths they had forsworn at one time or another. For those who declared their intention to answer the call, the rusted and broken weapons repaired themselves.

The rare religious septons assisting to this spectacle (outlaw communities having them in short numbers for a curious reason) proclaimed it a miracle of the Warrior himself. The Seven-Who-Are-One had spoken, the time of the final battle had sounded.

There were other noteworthy individuals to emerge out of the woods. The Brotherhood Without Banners, believed annihilated, resurfaced in the light to fight for the people. At their head was Thoros of Myr, a Red Priest made famous by his flame sword and his intrepidity. Lord Beric Dondarrion was dead, but his cause was not. Protect the innocent was their reason of life now, and given that the White Walkers wanted to annihilate all living things...

Not everyone was here for purely shining reasons. Weapon merchants and trainee smiths wanting to make their fortune. Squires that their masters had left behind before going to their end in the War of the Eight Kings. Smallfolk who had lost their families and figured that if they had to kill something before joining their beloved in another life, then better be an Other or one of the monsters forming their vanguard.

Lord Rickard Karstark by that time had managed to reach the Bloody Gate, albeit with great difficulties as the snow was several feet high and the northern winds were happy to sabotage every effort to remove it. What the Northern commander found there wasn't rejoicing. To say it flatly, the Bloody Gate was utterly unprepared to stop the assault of more a few clansmen on the western side, and should the Others come from eastwards (as it appeared more and more likely) an angry mob of fifty peasants would have had a good chance to storm the defences. Ser Donnel Waynwood, in his hurry to answer the call of the Lord Protector, had left at the Bloody Gate his worst elements and no veterans. A small party of clansmen had arrived to bolster the ranks, but these dwellers of the mountains and the high passes had no education fortifications, all their strategies being resolutely pointed on murderous offensives and raids.

Like Moat Cailin, the main stronghold of the now defunct Arryns had suffered from centuries of inactivity, and the unfounded assumption it was not necessary to protect the eastern approaches. Now Lord Karstark had a killing ground for any conventional enemy coming from the west, which was all well and good, until the dumbest soldiers acknowledged the enemy nearing on them was not a normal one, and that the majority of the Others were somewhere between Longbow Hall and the Eyrie.

The refugees who fled the Others by the thousands pressed the Master of Karhold to advance in the Vale and engage the enemy. The force now stationed there and busy erecting hasty trenches, moats and barricades in horrendous conditions was close to seven thousand strong, with more and more volunteers gathering from the former Crownlands and the Riverlands. Surely, put a fat Vale merchant, it was cowardice to stay idle while the proud warriors fought and bled against the Others?

The arrogant and huge merchant's name was never known, but his accusations against his Northern interlocutor were very badly received. Like quite a few of his fellow Northern lords, Lord Rickard had taken very badly the 'neutrality' of Lysa Arryn and the stance the Eastern swords took while the rest of the realm tore itself apart and the Lannisters burnt the Riverlands. Those warriors who had served alongside King Robert Baratheon at the Trident had believed the links of blood and honour forged on that day were going to survive for a few generations. To see them disregarded after less than two decades had not been pleasant, especially when it was your side on the receiving end. How the delegation sent to the Vale had been imprisoned, violating the rules of hospitality. How in definitive the Vale lords had refused to fight against the Second Long Night until it was on their lands.

The Karstark lord limited himself to answer they were not idle. And to prove it by more than words, the merchant and his 'delegation' were on the spot ordered to dig trenches and build rock walls in the first lines, at the place of greatest danger.

Lord Garlan Tyrell, once he arrived, approved his ally's choice. Fighting a battle in a prepared and fortified position(even if it was on the wrong side) was much better than running in the Vale completely blind, at the risk of finding Hellfrost, or rather Hellfrost finding them and slaughtering hundreds of soldiers before the first arrow was shot. The second son of Mace Tyrell had seen how many men were sent to slay Dreadwing and how little came back shaking from head to toe to admit their failure. No scout who departed in the night of the Vale and returned alive was able to say where the main force of White Walkers had gone. The wights were in abundance; already small groups of half-scores and scores were hurled at the Northerners and Reachers at irregular intervals. For the Karstark and Tyrell, there was no way these undead could present a danger and storm their positions. But for lone humans lost in the full rigour of winter, it took an astounding amount of skill to survive the encounter. Unsurprisingly, volunteers wanting to 'go out and see if they saw a White Walker' weren't legion at the start, and grew increasingly scarcer.

The defences continued to rise, several stone walls, massive trenches and plenty of dragonglass transported by the Bay of Crabs and recently mined from Dragonstone. While no one had say it out loud, the Last Alliance forces had decided to wait the arrival of the Kings and their best trained troops before beginning the counter-offensive. Praying that in the mean time, the Night's Queen didn't decide to pay a visit to the Crownlands or the Stormlands.

Not that the wait was boring. Hundreds of men and women were arriving day per day, and though the quality of these new allies was dubious at best, it allowed more manpower to make the Bloody Gate a rampart against the abominations, whose numbers grew steadily. There were by then two or three attacks per day, but each assault included sometimes as many as five hundred wights...and the blue flames of a couple Others were there far away, testing the defences, probing for a weakness, trying to spread defeat and terror in the mortals hearts and of course making any offensive in the Vale suicidal at best.

Next to arrive was the dreaded band of Red Priests that had gained the infamous nickname the Bearers of the Baneful Destiny, also known as Lightbringer's Undertakers. It was not a turn of hourglass that the followers of R'hllor had arrived, and already their presence was felt by the corpses of the few courageous having had the temerity to touch the magical sword. It went without saying no one took his or her chance after seven deaths (though more witnesses assure it was more like three, included two rapists given the choice between Lightbringer and hanging; the days after, everyone took the latter).

The few Lannisters to come were not welcomed with cheering and approbation, and were placed at good distance from the Northerners and most of the people they had offended in one manner or another. Thoros of Myr, Sandor Clegane and several outlaws' commanders enlarged the diversity of the coalition fighting under the banners of the Last Alliance, but also raised the animosity in the ranks, plenty of quarrels having been seeded in the civil war.

But it was the arrival of the Ironborn who brought the highest degree of attention, as at the right of Lady Asha Greyjoy rode Prince Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper of Dorne himself. And by the looks of it, the Viper and the Kraken's daughter had become very close indeed. For once, it was the Northerners who took this reveal with calm and acceptance. After all, Oberyn had just seized the opportunity offered by the Mother of Dragons and had not killed a single vassal of King Robb Stark. The Reachers led by Garlan Tyrell were on the other hand a bit more explosive. Dorne might have bent the knee after their brief passage under a Targaryen monarch and experience their own private civil war, but the prospects of an union between Casterly Rock could seriously upset the balance and surround the post-war Reach by enemies on all side. The Stag overlord had proven he was no great admirer of the Reach; Oberyn despite his personal friendship with Lord Willas Tyrell had not the signs of a reliable ally and neighbour. And of course the Ironborn under the Crow's Eye had been an inch or two away from destroying Highgarden. An overwhelming majority demanded Prince Oberyn and all his followers were put in the dungeons in chains, with the Ironborn remnants to fill the other cells.

The levels of disunion and animosity were particularly high, and bitterness reigned. The only thing that stopped many to sharpen their swords and finishing the feuds in a gory fashion were the repeated attacks of wights. The undead were now present in vast numbers and increasingly threw themselves to their burning pyres with no regard for their preservation. To every lord, knight and veteran familiar with the White Walkers, this was an extremely bad sign. For the champions of ice and winter to come back to their old tactics of 'softening' the defences by the weight of dead meat, it meant the monsters of the Long Night had replenished their inventory of human wights. In the distance, the roars of guttural beasts were heard, flashes of blue magic were seen when the blizzard calmed. The dead appeared in uncountable numbers. But the first strike would not fall on the Bloody Gate. Not far in the east, the Gates of the Moon fighters watched a colossal force of wights advance on them. In the air, the dragons screamed their challenge. The Battle for the Falcon Throne could begin.


	98. Dragonfall

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Eyrie, the Gates of the Moon or the dragons.

X59: Sad to say, but the Alliance and the Horde of Warcraft are worse than the Westerosi at their lowest moments. In the War of the Eight Kings or in canon, Westeros is in a pure civil war, with the arrival of the Others forcing most of the factions to put their differences aside and fight the greatest threat. By comparison, the level of backstabbing and change of alliances in Azeroth is simply phenomenal. So much that 'alliance' becomes really a weak word.

Paul: No, the second group had no one important, famous or infamous in it. There were a support group, without knights or the best armsmen. Which kinds of explains their disappearance...

The Lannister cause is not completely dead, yes. Neither are the Brotherhoods. Whether they will have an important part to play in the wars to come...

Qi Ji still won its important share of major battles before falling. His changes of allegiances notwithstanding, the man had to have some skills. Else the other side wouldn't try to recruit him at all...

raw666: Well, the dragons have their critical part to play in this chapter...

livebyinsanity: Thank you very much. Yeah, that's a problem I have with Yi-Ti in historical format. Since we haven't seen this country at all in the books, not having POVs of them is decreasing the interest.

Eduard Kassel: Oh, you are going to realise why in this chapter we are approaching the end game...

And I have to agree that Oberyn dying in the final battle would be much more preferable than Garlan Tyrell. One has helped humanity stand a chance of survival. The other is not doing much apart from seeding chaos where he walks...

thepkrgmc: Yes, for once the lack of magic in Westeros was an advantage, not a drawback...

notyou: Thanks! In a sense all of Westeros is feeling the same strain. This war-torn era has lasted longer than anybody thought: the first clashes were at the end of 298AC; it is now the ninth moon of 301AC... Over two years and a half of pure murder, with periods of detente or shifting strategies. With the intensity of the battles and the casualty rate...well, the Seven Kingdoms are going to need a lot of time to recover.

 **Dragonfall**

 **The Battle for the Falcon Throne**

"This is the Kingdom of the Vale's heart. Here stands the Falcon Throne and I'm its Lord Protector! Return in the darkness with your mistress, Others! You are not wanted here!" Lord Yohn Royce, 301AC.

" _All hail the Dragonslayer!_ " Unknown Valeman, 301AC.

" _This is not the end. The last battle awaits us, we are so going to die.._." Black Brother Edd 'the Dolorous' Tollett', 301AC.

" _There are many names for this battle today. The Battle for the Falcon Throne. The Second Battle for the Gates of the Moon. The Protector's Last Stand. The Battle of the Peaks. But the most popular is the Dragonfall."_ Queen Cassana Baratheon, 340AC.

If given the choice of a fortress to attack in the second century after the Conquest, the Westerosi prominent commanders certainly wouldn't have chosen the Eyrie. While the Arryn castle had not a complete reputation of invincibility like Casterly Rock or Storm's End, it was widely acknowledged that no sane man was going to try to storm this citadel. First, because assuming a big army had been mustered, you had to take the Gates of the Moon before making any moves at the Eyrie. Properly garrisoned, this castle now belonging to House Royce of the Gates of the Moon was a massive rampart against aggression. High walls, a true killing ground in front of the castle as the mountain clansmen had discovered to their sorrow during the civil war, and a single gate that was guarded by two massive stone towers. Ballista and scorpions were largely present.

The defeat of the Arryn cause had proven the Eyrie could be taken. However, with Lord Nestor and Yohn Royce commanding the Gates of the Moon and the upper fortress having little in term of supplies and being defended third-rate guards, the Eyrie had still held for a long time. And they had for all leadership a madwoman and a sick child.

But winter was coming. If 300AC had seen its beginning and people had abandoned the Eyrie in all haste after the death of Lady Lysa Arryn, then 301AC was undoubtedly worse. The snow fell in such quantities on the ground of the Vale there were places one man could mount on the shoulders or another and fail to reach the top of the white mantle. The winds of winter, the terrible blizzards not seen for several decades, unleashed their fury on the valleys, passes and mountains of the Vale. All of this meant of course that the Eyrie had been abandoned to the elements wrath well before any Other had landed a foot on the soil now defended by the forces of Lord Protector Royce.

Then came the successive falls of House Coldwater, with Heart's Home and House Corbray following at a close interval thanks to the military incompetence of their Lord. And the Battle of the Frozen Tears ended any prospect to miraculously end the tide of darkness. The dragons had proven unable to stop the ice demons. The only realistic strategy available now to the surviving men was to retrench their forces in their most powerful bastions and hope the Last Alliance would come in time to save all.

Unfortunately, marching down the Neck in winter conditions was quite a feat. And the Night's Queen had no intention to wait for their arrival. The Others forces had been really stymied until that point in the Second Long Night. The North, as large as it was, had had the time to conduct more or less orderly retreats and avoid total disaster, defined more or less by 'tens of thousands refugees running everywhere and been slaughtered piece-meal by the White Walkers'. The Vale had not that chance. With the exception of House Belmore, whose isolation in the mountains was its own salvation, every fortress north of Ronnel's Pass was gone (the Three Sisters did not count there as it was Last Alliance forces which had saved part of their lands). The columns of terrified smallfolk fleeing before Heart's Home was destroyed were bad. Very bad. But there were a mere shadow of what happened next.

Grey Glen of House Tollett, Newkeep of House Hersy and Lip Shield of House Lipps were utterly destroyed by Hellfrost and an army of wights so large the rare men able to report what they saw told of an obscurity so terrifying they had felt their blood freeze at the very sight. The first castle was evacuated in time; to their last day the members of House Tollett declared they had received a dark omen in their sleep. The two other strongholds were not so lucky, having received some knights and men-at-arms having deserted during the last battle, and had not the ballista to inconvenience a dragon. The Others were now marching east after having crushed and dispersed the Essossi biggest contingent, and there was no subtlety in their moves. The East had fallen; the abominations intended for the rest of Westeros to be next. Starting with the Eyrie and the Gates of the Moon.

The last days before the next great battle were dark. The Others had regained their distinction of sworn enemies of humanity since their reappearance, but now that they were raiding in a heavily-settled area, the Valemen and their allies of circumstances discovered how cruel and sadist the White Walkers were by human standards. Children were slain under the eyes of their powerless parents, piece by piece. Mock duels were improvised, where a lone human with a steel sword was encircled by dozens of the monsters. Warriors who had dared resist with obsidian weapons were dragged alive in chains by their freshly resurrected mount, and became wights themselves when they mercifully expired. Men and women were forced to dig large pits, fill them with various spears and sharp objects, before being hurled on them by the laughing White Walkers.

Atrocities that the Mountain would not have denied were committed by hundreds. Villages and little towns were razed to the ground, not because there was a need to hunt the people, but by pure pleasure. The domains of House Donniger and House Egen were ravaged the denizens of the Land of Always Winter. The last knights of the Vale fled in the mountains with all the refugees they had been able to save, or raced to the Bloody Gate to reinforce the armies mustering here. The fight for the Second Long Night, which had been already one to the death, escalated to a whole new level, with the wights being burnt in chains and the lone ice warriors who fell being tortured if the dragonglass weapons were not enough to end them on the spot.

The good part of the news was that the soldiers gathered at Eyrie weren't taken unaware this time by what was coming at them. By tens of thousands, the wights crawled, run, galloped or walked in the direction of the Gates of the Moon. It was literally impossible to hide such a force, and the Night's Queen didn't even try: flying over her army of darkness, the sovereign of the White Walkers encouraged them with sinister blue spells of fell sorceries and the roars of Hellfrost.

This time, the army of death didn't bother to form a line. Close to forty thousand wights of all types charged the walls, coming as they were without any coordination or tactical formation. It was simply a wave of monsters. A wave of corpses-thralls, having received the order to end all life in the world.

The first lines didn't manage to close the distance. Trenches and pits had been dug all over the place and hidden under the last fresh snowfall. The second lines were stopped by new traps. And the third...the third was blocked at the base of the Moon walls, and without any ladders or siege equipment, were ruthlessly slaughtered by the archers and the other soldiers atop the fortifications. Drogon added its fire breath to the carnage, the injuries perturbing his flight but not his firepower.

The attack had been repulsed with ease. The living had three wounded, none of them serious. The wights had been forced to literally fill the trenches and all the traps to pass. Casualties for the abominations had to be somewhere thirty thousand, a terrible thing when most were recognised as smallfolk, merchants and non-fighters. But the attack showed no intention of stopping. Three large catapults, certainly taken at the Frozen Tears and repaired with sorcery and Other engineering were brought in range. Small wights groups continued to rush in a suicidal manner to extinguish the human-made fires. The arrowheads stocks started to be seriously depleted, and despite the exhortations of their commanders, the Vale men progressively lost courage. The temperatures were hellishly cold, and the screams coming from the Enemy were a litany that was never interrupted.

The second assault rolled in and things turned uglier. The catapults, that had been believed to be out of range, launched wights after wights as projectiles on the towers. The defensive traps were all done. The visibility became so low seeing anything not at twenty feet required the eyes of a falcon. Pushed to fight endlessly in a day where the light failed to appear, the men and women present were exhausted. The first ladders and wights with bows appeared and started to take their toll. Even the flames of Drogon could not be everywhere, and in this cold the black dragon was nearing a hibernating state.

And then the Night's Queen came on Hellfrost, her first pass caused hundreds of casualties, killing uncountable archers and Ser Donnel Waynwood. The defence was crushed in an instant. Coming out of the blizzard, tens of thousands wights followed by hundreds of White Walkers came to the assault. The end was near.

And then the winds of victory went out the Others grasp. As the Night's Queen encouraged her subordinates and contemplated the massacre accomplished by the breath of her monstrous beast, the dragon Dreadwing emerged from the peaks and slammed into Hellfrost.

The stupefaction was total on both sides. But it was worse for the Others, who had clearly expected their biggest weapon to do the same thing again...especially as Drogon had not been neutralised in this violent assault. The White Walkers and then thousands wights thus charged Drogon...it took less time to say it, their death was quick and abominable. And then Queen Daenerys rode Drogon and climbed in altitude to defy Hellfrost and the Others sovereign a last time.

Indeed, Dreadwing past the first moments of surprise was taking a beating. Euron's folly had not really recovered from its wounds, and the experts on dragon behaviour have suspected it was more a territorial instinct bred in its very genes that had pushed the dragon to attack its ice counterpart. The problem was that Drogon was wounded too, perhaps worse than Dreadwing, and even the two dragons acting in perfect coordination would still have left experience and vitality on the side of Hellfrost. The intervention of Drogon in the aerial battlefield did not re-establish the balance for long. Soon, the Night's Queen went back on the offensive and threw spells after spells, forcing its two draconic opponents to widen the range lest they be obliterated (it was not an exaggeration: some of the spells blasted into the mountains and left frozen craters).

On the ground, the White Walkers left decided to be more careful and launched tens thousands more wights in the battle, leaving Commander Jon Snow, Ser Albar Royce and Lord Uthor Tollett fighting for their lives. The situation could be described as pretty desperate.

What the three dragons and the two riders had not been careful however, was that their formidable battle had brought them very close to the Eyrie. In purely tactical terms, it was logical; of all the places on top of the peaks, mountains and glaciers that constituted the landscape, it was perhaps the place where the winds were the less violent. But it assumed the Eyrie were empty. They weren't.

The former Arryn castle was so inhospitable in winter no one could live there, but it was such a commanding position over the Gates of the Moon that it had to be held or the enemy would have transported sorcerers there and massacred the Valemen in avalanches like they had done with the wildlings near Hardhome.

Lord Yohn Royce, not in a state to fight and plenty of crippled non-fighters had been left there. With some wights and a few wyverns avoiding the Gates of the Moon and trying to fly or climb to the Eyrie the hard way, garrison had been taken over by Ygritte, Commander Jon Snow's lover. And the Free Folk young woman rarely missed.

The first obsidian arrow went right in Hellfrost's throat. The ice dragon had been ready to launch a devastating ice-breath attack again, and one of its wounds from the Frozen Tears had not been perfectly healed after all. The obsidian made sure it was a fatal wound. Hellfrost started to lose altitude, roaring, screaming in agony, its mistress powerless on its back. The ice dragon almost made it back to its own lines. Almost. Hellfrost was still close to twenty feet height when it fell like a stone and pulverised a hundred wights when it crushed against the ground.

The Night's Queen, for all her power, had been severely harmed by this free fall. Her dragon was dead. For the first time, the Others faced an unbearable crisis. A decision had to be taken, especially as the resistance of the Valemen was holding at all costs, the men throwing their last forces in the battle, heartened back by the death of the beast that had been their bane.

The second arrow of Ygritte found the space between the scales where Lord Theon Greyjoy had hurt Dreadwing in the Battle of Pyke. This time the black sorcery casted by the Crow's Eye and his servitors was of no use. Dreadwing roared a last time and slammed into the Lance just below the Eyrie. The shock was such its fall unleashed an avalanche burying several hundred wights that had tried to take the Gates of the Moon by behind (their casualties had to be significant, given the wights lack of aptitude for climbing).

This was enough for the Others. Despite outnumbering the Royce and the Night's Watch one hundred-to-one, the White Walkers retreated from the battlefield, leaving Hellfrost's corpse and tens of thousands of wights be murdered by the vengeful Valemen, Northerners, Dornish, Black Brothers and Essossi.

The battle was not yet over. A detachment of ice spiders-mounted Others, who had been in the process of climbing on the northern face of the Lance, decided that the death of Hellfrost deserved retribution. At an infernal speed, the spiders rushed towards the summit, so fast in fact six lost their grip in this perilous ascension and would never attempt anything else. They had not counted with the Bronze Warrior. Lord Yohn Protector came to challenge them with a bronze armour shining with magic, a runic axe and an iron leg. There were twenty Others against forty men (though bard tales being what they are, some versions decades later pretended the Lord Protector was alone against the ice blades) and the clash was terrible. In a furious melee, the living and the dead massacred each other, until there was only Lord Yohn Royce and one White Walker left. Laughing demonically, the abomination disarmed the Lord Protector by cutting his right arm...and lowered his blade, gloating of his victory. It was the last mistake this Other would ever make in his long life. Pushing a thunderous battle-cry, Lord Yohn charged his enemy, grabbed him with an unbreakable grip and the two fell out of the Moon doors.

The Eyrie had been saved, at the price of the Lord Protector's life.

But the cost was beyond atrocious. The armies of the Others had not been vanquished, the Night's Queen was not dead. And the wounds suffered by Drogon were so horrible the black Targaryen dragon would never see another dawn.

The Dragonfall was over.


	99. Eve of the Battle

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Vale, the Long Night or Ser Justin Massey.

X59: Your compliments are very much appreciated. Good to know the surprise was kept until the last moment.

Daenerys is now in a constant state of depression, and the loss of her bond with Drogon had hit her hard. As for the Vale, they will be led by Jon Snow and the surviving Royces and Tolletts commanders.

Paul: Good point for the Free Cities, though with the time of huge battles over on this side of the Narrow Sea, I am unsure how many chapters I will spend on them.

Edd predictions are somewhat accurate...except the ones where his own death is concerned. Those invariably fail. The White Walkers sometimes don't manage to eliminate everyone...and sometimes they let one or two survivors walk away, in order to spread the tales. Band of sadists...

Ygritte and plenty of others were on different levels of the Eyrie. Only Yohn and his escort died, a sacrifice to ensure all the rest were going to live. It nearly wasn't enough.

And yes, all three dragons involved in the battle died. Now things are going to get better and worse, depending on the point of views...

raw666: Thanks for the review!

yesboss21: In this timeline, I won't go with the theory of the Others having been created by the Children of the Forest. And no, there is no sword to be found in abandoned Northern ruins. I'm assuming the creatures that made the ancient parts of Lorath have long disappeared. As for the Winged Men and some parts of the world that have not been mentioned, it is because their role in the war is not significant.

skipper 1337: Yes 'ouch' is the correct word. This battle was a true slaughter...

It's true the situation by now is truly at a very weak equilibrium. Both sides have their chances for the final battle...and it is going to be the end for many. As for the human actions, well the show and the books make very good points how low kings and nobles can sink without eldritch abominations...

Didn't think anymore about the 100 chapter mark...guess I will have to make something special...

HeroHearth: The irony is indeed touching...however one might argue the name of the two other dragons were of people who hurt her a lot too. Rhaegar doomed the Targaryen dynasty by his actions, and Drogo raped her quite a lot...

thepkrgmc: Oh no, Ygritte is still very much alive. More info in this chapter.

 **Eve of the Battle**

 **Nightfall Part V**

" _Your advice is really unhelpful, Ser. We might as well ask the tree_." Ser Justin Massey, 301AC.

" _Even the trees are leading us to our doom!_ " Black Brother Edd 'Dolorous' Tollett, 301AC.

" _The Night's Queen is really the head of the White Walkers. Cut the head and the body dies_." Lord Andar Royce, 301AC.

" _Never underestimate women_." Nymeria Sand, 301AC.

For both sides, the Second Battle of the Gates of the Moon was a terrible affair. The Dragonfall had ravaged living and dead. Thousands had been crushed in dragonfire, hot or cold. The obsidian arrows had sung in the Vale in quantities never seen before the Battle of the Frozen Tears. Rains of deaths and blizzards had met upon the battlefield. Swords and axes, spears and warhammers had taken a horrific bounty of lives. Thousands of screams had resonated in the night. And the dragons had danced to their deaths.

The Protector's Last Stand had proven how far humans and Others were willing to go to win the Second Long Night. Too far. For the humans still standing, the amount of time they had passed in the deep darkness fighting waves after waves of wights, monsters straight from the legends and White Walkers left wide scars on the bodies and the minds.

There was no song to celebrate the fall of Hellfrost in this night. The warcries had stopped after the Others had withdrawn or routed, and exhaustion fell on the remnant of the Royce and allied soldiers having had the luck and the skill at arms to survive such a mighty slaughter. Food, sleep, drink, rest; that was what the troops of Commander Jon Snow and Lord Andar Royce needed before any thought of engaging the enemy again could be thought of. The majority of the knights and the men-at-arms had difficulties to walk weapons in their hands, their strength sapped by the endless efforts of the last battle and the freezing temperatures of winter.

The Great Enemy had lost tens of thousands in its attack. That much was beyond question. Years after the battle, the maesters and the historians still debated on different estimations. The lowest were at sixty thousand, to which between five thousand and five thousand six hundred Others had to be added. Two hundred ice spiders. Two score of giant wights.

But to inflict these losses, one human on three present at the Eyrie and the Gates of the Moon had left this world, and hundreds were severely wounded. The sole fire dragon present was dead. No one doubted that had the White Walkers decided to press the assault again, humanity here would have little luck avoiding annihilation.

But Hellfrost was dead. The biggest and most dangerous ice dragon under the abominations control had perished. It changed everything. With one killed by Tyrion Lannister in the Battle of the Wall and one having not showed itself since the Battle of the Frozen Tears, the skies were clear and the Enemy had showed a vulnerability. There were still some ice wyverns left, but there were few (throwing them fortresses assault after assault had decimated their numbers) and the beasts had never had the impact of their big cousins the dragons anyway.

Yes, humanity had a chance. Now someone had to go and tell the Last Alliance of this change in the rapport of force. Preferably before the White Walkers recovered their spirits and their murderous thirst of carnage, and sent a second assault at the Eyrie. An assault that the defenders had no great chances to stop. Critical supplies like dragonglass and oil were at their bottom limits. All living in shape of fighting knew they would sell dearly their life, but the crumbling walls of the Gates meant creating a breach was not going to take long.

The problem, mere days ago remarked by Lord Rickard Karstark, was that there was only a single path for a significant number of men to get out of the Eyrie unless they sprouted wings by a miracle of an unknown divinity. And the whole White Walkers main strike force and tens of thousands wights were right in the middle of it. Obviously, another way had to be found.

The last clansmen having achieved the incredible feat of fighting the two great battles proposed a dangerous alternative. From the Free Folk having accompanied the Black Brothers, the Mountains of the Moons nomadic tribes had learnt how the wildlings climbed the Wall for hundreds of years to go South. The materials needed were ropes, stakes of iron, boots of supple animal skin spiked with iron or bone, small stone-headed hatchets; all of this could be found or built in a Vale fortress.

That said, the ascent was going to be extremely dangerous. The Mountains of the Moon were far higher than the Wall at its highest point, and one single error could only result in death. Moreover, it was the middle of winter and what would have been no easy climb in the middle of summer was now an endeavour worthy of heroes, with the blizzard, the endless snowfalls and the possibility of an avalanche breaking out at each movement. And there was nearly no one who had that kind of experience in high altitude.

War-heroine Ygritte, now known by everyone as the Dragonslayer, proposed her services but was firmly rebuked by her lover Commander Jon Snow. The young woman had received a sharp ice spear in the leg when the last wights and Others tried to storm the Eyrie, and was barely able to walk. Jon Snow was also in no condition to climb the mountainous peaks near the Lance, courtesy of a monstrous bear wight that had missed killing him by an inch or two. There were four clansmen who were in a state approaching 'lightly injured' if one was very elastic on the healers' reports. And the volunteers were not legion. After the descent into the darkness that was the Dragonfall, the courage of many had taken a severe blow, and there was not a score of men who had the will to risk their lives in a last ditch. An impossible, reckless, cold as hell, last ditch.

In the end, one Free Folk, two Moon clansmen, Black Brothers Edd 'the Dolorous' Tollett and Pypar and two Valemen having passed the majority of their lives in the mountains were chosen to what was seen as a mission with impossible odds. Ascending one of the more secure peaks near the Lance, as relative as this qualification was, the group disappeared in the snow and the darkness. The defenders of the Gates had now to wait and hope.

Fortunately, the Others did not remark this departure, or if they did, they failed to act upon it. The dwellers of the Lands of Always Winter were, to use a proper human parallel, paralysed in incertitude. Long had every human wondered how much the will of the Night's Queen was guiding the Others to wage war against the living. Now they had the answer. The White Walkers were individuals, but tactical initiative and command authority were definitely foreign things to them. From the highest viewpoints in the Eyrie, the multitude of human and animal wights was immobile, surrounding their dread masters. The majority of the sorcerers being busy maintaining their Queen alive and healing her terrible wounds, it was the remaining ice warriors who were in charge...a duty they obviously had never established a real contingency for. No one could hear the words in the distance, but hundreds of hourglasses turn passed, blue flames were lightened...and the Others didn't move.

The most reasonable explanation was at the worst moment possible for them, the Others faced a crisis of command, and showed several orders less of initiative and hurry than a group of human soldiers to solve it. In fact, the only initiative that could be seen from an outside viewpoint was that the secondary wights groups and lesser armies ravaging the heart of the Vale were recalled. At Longbow Hall, a four-thousand strong force under three White Walkers was in the process of building their own ladders and siege engines to assault the home of House Hunter when without warning they left their positions and marched east without warning. Numerous scouts in the difficult terrain near the Redfort saw in the snowy days that the passes that were crawling with wights before were now nearly empty of opposition. The ruins of Ironoaks, where uncountable dead had taken position, were now lying silent, bereft of any occupying owner.

This was a golden occasion to counter-attack on the Vale coast for the Essossi fleets and armies. Save the little issue there was not a lot to retaliate with. The Targaryen first expeditionary force had literally disintegrated, and what was left at Old Anchor was only shadows of a host of twenty-plus thousand men. To push again against the Others, the soldiers of the Mothers of Dragons and the rare Braavosi and Pentoshi having come to the frontlines were going to need reinforcements. Lots of reinforcements. More to be honest than what was available this side of the Narrow Sea. Queen Daenerys' advisor Missandei had managed with a surprising amount of competence to transfer over five thousand Dothraki and three thousand sellswords of variable loyalty to Old Anchor, building the first seeds of a true army, but it needed a commander. Unsullied Commander Grey Worm was wounded and could not assume his duties. Ser Barristan Selmy had disappeared and was presumed dead. His squires were not in a better condition, dead at Ironoaks, mutilated in the healers' tent or so uncharismatic putting one in command would lead to massive protests. Long distances being a major disadvantage against rapid communications, the troops on the terrain finally chose their own commander, a Volantene sellsword named nicknamed the Blue Tiger. How this mass of men was going to reach the battlefield, being more than unsuited to winter conditions and the like, was left to the Old and New Gods.

At the same time, the Last Alliance was rushing down the Neck to arrive to the Bloody Gate before the tides of darkness did. By a turn of events that surprised no one save the main interested, Ser Justin Massey was chosen to lead the van of five hundred men, the reasoning behind this nomination being that this way murders would be avoided and the Others were going to have their chance to eliminate the knight of Stonedance. 'Greatjon' Umber, Lord of Last Hearth was following close behind, with a large-sized force of Northern and Frey troops. It had to be said it was as close to the opposite of an easy assignment. Usually, the banks of the Green Fork and the region near it, the lengthy road of the Kingsroad and the surrounding areas, were flat. Easy to resupply with lots of villages, and good open terrain for cavalry charges. Even in autumn this was not an area where living was unpleasant, unless your house was too close from the rivers: then with massive floods drowning was far from impossible. But this was winter, and not a warm one. The Kingsroad had disappeared under feet of snow. All the tree leaves were gone, the temperatures were so cold the Twins bastion lost its utility as the Green Fork was solidly frozen on several places. Snowfalls and snow storms modified the landscape considerably. Guides were of relative utility as no one in the last five century had seen with his or her eyes such a violent and hellish season.

Fatally, each day increased the chances of someone getting lost in this bad weather. Especially if there wasn't the Green Fork in sight to use as a mark, the guides were lost and feared admitting it, and the commanding officer wasn't exactly noted for his appreciation of the local geography. Which was why one day, the Umber scouts noticed the vanguard that was supposed preceding them was nowhere to be found. Justin Massey and his five hundred men had disappeared in the white Riverlands. And with the Karstark couriers bearing alarming warnings of an imminent Other attack, there was not enough time to search a zone where at least several armies could have been hidden. This for sure was not seen as a good omen, but the veterans had endured so many battles they weren't going to collapse now. And Ser Justin Massey had been hardly seen as the kind of commander the Northerners venerated. The final battle would have to go without him, unfortunate but tolerable in the grand scheme of the Second Long Night.

Far east to the Umber positions, the Massey detachment, who had finally realised they were lost somewhere in the Mountains, met up with the group send by the Eyrie commanders, who looked about as lost as them and about to die. Of the initial complement, only the Free Folk warrior and the two Black Brothers had survived, leaving Edd 'the Dolorous' Tollett in charge. The news of Hellfrost death were particularly welcome, and boosted the spirits of the soldiers sworn to King Stannis Baratheon. There was just a minor issue. The united force had the information and knew the probable correct action to take. But in which direction was the battlefield? None of the five hundred and three men had a clue.

"We might as well ask the tree." Remarked Ser Justin Massey, designating near them an old oak which looked about to be completely be buried under the snow. And at the great stupefaction of everyone present, the tree shuddered, and pointed one of its branches straight to the south. Moment a bit ruined by Edd 'the Dolorous', who exclaimed that "even the trees are leading us to our doom!". It was the first limpid evidence any Westerosi had of a greenseer intervention and the survival of Prince Brandon Stark.

Back in the Others camp, the Night's Queen wounds were sufficiently healed for the sorceress to put her troops in order of battle. Two thousand wights being hurled at the Gates of the Moon were the sole confirmation the living needed anyway. If the Night's Queen intention was to take back the corpse of Hellfrost it was all for naught. Immediately after the monster's death, a Royce party had cut it into several pieces with obsidian points and set the rest aflame. But the most probable scenario was the ice queen wanted to assess the level of resistance she was going to meet. Apparently, it was too much. Turning the new mount she had chosen, a gigantic polar bear long transformed as a wight, the Night's Queen left the battlefield, followed by the endless columns of wights, monsters and White Walkers.

The hordes of the Enemy were no longer interested in the Vale. Their ice dragons lost, they now faced the real risk of losing everything. Breaking through in the Riverlands was now a matter of survival for them, before the number of Others fell to zero. Unbeknownst to them, at the Bloody Gate the armies of the Stormlands and the North had arrived to participate in the carnage.

The Battle of the Last Alliance was about to begin.


	100. Cometh Life Cometh Death

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Arya Stark, the Night's Queen, the Children of the Forest and the Others.

X59: Bran's importance is discussed in this chapter. Feel free to get surprised. As for the chapter being fought in the Vale, well I wanted to avoid the too classic scenario of a heroic stand on the Trident, at Winterfell or at King's Landing. I think it's more original, plus humanity has more chances to win.

Paul: My focus is still on Westeros and has always been...I will see what I can do for Essos.

The defenders of the Gates of the Moon haven't got much a sleep. When wights are threatening to attack without warning, you sleep a couple of hours before returning to the walls. There aren't enough forces to let the men and the women sleep more.

The fate of the second dragon is going to be discussed...just not in this chapter.

No one is interested in transporting demons elsewhere. Others and Shai'tans are threats to humanity very existence. You find them, you kill them.

Most of the greenest forces of Daenerys have been left in Pentos. There's no need to cramp the transports with troops that will be a burden in battle.

Yohn's death was seen by many of the civilians retrenched in the upper levels of the Eyrie.

Edd and Pypar's mission was simple: go to the main army and announce Hellfrost's death. Of course, the Others have some cards left in their game.

Matt Quinn: Thanks! There's going to be crowning moments of awesome before the end of the Long Night.

yesboss21: I've mentioned not so long ago, but basically, everyone has agreed it's a weapon of last resort. Don't use until/if things get desperate and there's no chance of victory.

skipper 1337: Ser Justin had no idea where he was going...they were extenuating circumstances: there was a blizzard and his men are as bad as him to find their way to the battlefield. It was not exactly a sacrifice. It was an attempt not to hear Massey for a week or two. If someone killed him, so be it, but no one had really expected Ser Justin to do something like go missing in a snow storm.

The Others by now have lost close to twenty five thousand and five hundred of their own. Gruelling losses. The second question will be answered in part in this chapter, and for the rest you will have to wait until the end of the battle.

Yes, the story is full of strong women...my personal gesture to GRRM to present the two sex relationships like that in canon. The dragons that have fallen were so torn apart it would have cost a lot of magic for the Night's Queen to resurrect one. Magic they can't furnish with the time delay they have.

Guest: Compliments appreciated. Yes, the Iron Bank methods are developed from an Essossi culture and destined to be applied to Essossi monarchs and rulers. With Westerosi, every action gets everything more complicated...

HeroHearth: Rhaegar didn't ruin Daenerys life because he lost the war. He ruined Daenerys life because not once in his damned life he had the guts to stand up to his father and throw him in a cell. Seriously, what Aerys did to his wife should have gotten him killed ten times over. But the Kingsguard were the next best things to robots, and the Queen died due to this succession of rapes. And the court members were so interested by their own interests, even when their Mad King made quite clear he wanted to see the capital burn...

As for Daenerys wedding night, opinion on this chapter differs...though I agree the khal was ten times better for her than Viserys. Of course, the latter set standards so low...

thepkrgmc: At first he departed for a trip in the mountains, and his group was nearly the end of the journey when they met Massey's quite lost formation. Both leaders will be noted to have sub-average orientation skills.

Okay, here we are. Chapter...100! Special number, which means special chapter. I know that for months, many have made a lot of speculations on the Others, their origins and everything. This chapter (in part) answers the questions. Fair warning, there are a lot of spoilers. It's also pretty big; I had to write two entire days to have it ready in time. Hope every reader will be able to appreciate it.

Okay, everything is ready, here we go...

 **Cometh Life Cometh Death**

 **The Battle of the Last Alliance Part I**

 _There is no vilest act than kinslaying in the North. It does not matter if it is justified or not. Only breaking guest right is as damning in the eyes of the Old Gods._

 _When I was young, I never saw the point. I loved Robb, Bran, Rickon and Jon. I loved my parents. Sansa annoyed me. But we were a family. We were a pack. And the pack fights its battles together. The pack survives in the winter, while the lone wolf dies on its own._

 _Then came the War of the Eight Kings and Winter. My father died before me, killed by these Lannister traitors. Robb became the King in the North. Sansa and I suffered like we had never thought, struggling to survive every day of these dark times. I think it is what made us closer, in these long nights, besieged by the abominations in our own home of Winterfell. Rickon grew to become the wild adventurer he has become so famous by now in far-away empires and under strange stars. Jon led the dying Night's Watch in battles against darkness. Together, we led pack of humans, direwolves and shadowcats to purge the North from these monsters and send them to whatever Hell they had crawled from._

 _We won the war. We won, but the price was terrible and there was little rejoicing. Seeing the haunted and gaunt faces of the soldiers limping back home, I knew the North had merely survived the storm that had threatened to destroy everything. Robb was never the same again. Jon came out better, but even he did not survive unscathed. Mother's heart never truly recovered from the death of Father and the disappearance of Bran. Yes, the Stark had paid a deep debt in ice and blood to the White Walkers._

 _I never forgave the Others for this. When the Long Winter finally ended, I led the armies of the North and we hunted and destroyed them for two decades until there was none remaining south of the Wall. In the North it is called the Retribution. In the South they call it the She-Wolf Crusade. I say it was only justice for the devastation these monsters had brought to our line and our bannersmen._

 _As years passed, the number of troops under my command diminished. The Others numbers were reduced under the hundred, and the former Seven Kingdoms were safe. Still, we pursued them past the Wall and murdered those who did not flee towards the Lands of Always Winter. Passed the Fist of the First Men, nine-tenths of my army progressively returned to guard the Wall and their lands in the South. Enemy resistance had become irrelevant. Victory was ours._

 _It was two fortnights later that I found my brother Bran. Melted in the roots of a weirwood tree, surrounded by the last Children of the Forest._

 _It was here that I learnt the full truth of the conflict that had almost been our doom, though we had gained important clues from the tortured and dying Others during the war._

 _And on that day, for the very first time, I wanted to kill my brother._

 _Millennia ago, something had shifted in the Lands of Always Winter. Some spoke of a fallen star. Another theory was of a strange disease. Everybody agreed this had been a nefarious period, full of chaos, where realty and magic were not clearly separated._

 _And from this breach in the north, the First came out. The Great Other. The Bane of Humanity. The Reaper of the Frozen Wastes. Not truly alive, and not truly dead. The Enemy of All Living Things._

 _In such a short amount of time, all species living in the neighbouring area had been consumed. Spiders. Dragons. Birds. Fishes. Ice magic of untold power seeped in the bones of every living creature, and transformed them into animated frozen abominations. These were the first legions of death, reborn anew to destroy all life._

 _The First Men, freshly settled in Westeros, did not agree to their ordered extermination. With iron and bronze weapons, they resisted. Our ancestors built great castles, and tried to endure the assaults of the Long Night. It did not work. There was no Riverrun, Winterfell or Gates of the Moon. The only great natural fortress of the time, Casterly Rock, was soon besieged by countless wights. Little by little, humanity forces were crushed and resurrected as wights. Save the citadel that was about to become the Lannister's stronghold, the resistance had been pushed back to what are now today the Marches of the Stormlands._

 _And the Children? The Children of the Forest were not fighting. Still reeling from their efforts to sink the Neck and drown thousands of First Men, the old race was waiting that the humans and the Others had so badly weakened each other that they could come back and regain their forests._

 _It was here that Azor Ahai came. He was the last of his line, the hero of the last hopes. With Brandon the Builder, Aran Dayne the First Sword of the Morning, Lann the Clever, Durran Godsgrief and Garth Greenhand, the great warrior managed to cross the entirety of Westeros and go beg the Children for help._

 _Finally the Children relented and taught the humans their magical and mystical knowledge. The humans were on the brink of defeat, and waiting more could only result in their own extinction. Dragonglass was mined, the first blades forged in magic were forged, and pacts were made to link humans and animals in the great struggle to come. I leave you with one guess whose animal the Starks chose to bond with._

 _United in fire and magic, humanity counter-attacked and triumphed. Ice dragons fell from the skies. Spiders were crushed into oblivion. The thousands of wights were burnt in pyres so numerous and luminous they were seen from the tops of the Mountains of the Moon to where Oldtown stands today. In a great and desperate battle, the Others were defeated and the last ice dragon slain. On the site of this battle, Brandon the Builder would build his great fortress where I am writing these words today. And in the words of Azor Ahai himself "Winter fell there!" Winter Fell. Winterfell._

 _But like us forty-nine years ago, this victory brought little joy. The Great Other can't be vanquished. Or if it is, even the Braavosi have not yet invented the super-weapon which will do the deed. Azor Ahai was dying. Lightbringer is in many ways a sword without equal, but no one can truly endure its enlace for long. And someone had to guard the Door. The Door beyond which the Great Other was and, I sincerely pray to the Old Gods still is, imprisoned. Azor Ahai's wife Nyssa volunteered for this duty, along with the elite of the Dawn forces._

 _It was a monumental error, and a betrayal from the Children of the Forest that the humans had not expected._

 _Children had known that members of their own race had succumbed to the Great Other sorceries in the first offensive of the abominations. Humans had no reason to be immune, but those who could have warned them refused to do so. Even in his great prison specially built for him, the Great Other's reach was only restrained, not totally stopped. The sentinels charged to stand vigil over their Great Enemy progressively ceased to feel the cold and the fury of the elements. Their skins got paler, more livid. Their eyes started to turn blue. A frozen aura started to emanate from their skins. Their own magic, magic that was warm and comforting, grew corrupted and icy. The guardians were doomed. They were slowly becoming the very things they had sworn to fight to their dying breaths._

 _That did not mean these formidable warriors were all ready to die without trying something, anything to save the situation. Queen Nyssa and a large party descended southwards, hoping their ancient allies could save them._

 _Brandon the Builder was long dead, but one of his grand-children, Ravon Stark, had become the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, humanity's second rampart should the Great Other broke out._

 _Unfortunately, things went to hell, literally. Despite the best efforts of the green priests, the North's most powerful sorcerers, the curse of the Great Other could not be reversed. Queen Nyssa had by that point the appearance that would stun and despair thousands of warriors eight millennia later. Although we knew her only by an ancestral nickname. The Night's Queen._

 _She and Ravon Stark fell in love. And Joramun, King-Beyond-the Wall , attacked them, armed with the Horn of Winter and other magical weapons. The Children had decided to stab humanity in the back. They knew the Great Other's prison was not eternal. But humanity was growing too powerful, too quickly. It was not two generations the First Men had been taught how to practise magic, and already their powers surpassed largely those of the Children. Soon, even the abominable power of the demon may not be enough to defeat humanity. Joramun, a man who had lusted after Nyssa and had forged a new kingdom after a feudal quarrel with House Stark, was to be their instrument of destruction._

 _Queen Nyssa and Ravon Stark commanded formidable armies, but the forces of Joramun were not small either. By magic and metal, humans fought humans, and rivers of blood flowed. Joramun managed to ravage the earth and stone fortifications of the Night's Watch, but Nyssa raised an ice wall with the support of Brandon III, King in the North. One against which the might of the giants that were later conjured by Samwell Tarly proved insufficient._

 _The ancestors of the wildlings were crushed, but the damage was atrocious. Ravon Stark, the Night's King, died in his lover's arms in the last battle. The lore, the knowledge and the archives contained in the Nightfort archives, all was lost. Several forts had been vandalised and ruined by the wildlings. The new Wall had been hastily created and there was no repair plan for the builders to follow. And the Children had struck behind the Black Brother lines, cursing the lands and targeting the leaders of the wargs and the wizards. The sentinels had to return northwards, to guard the Door, hoping their cousins would later find a solution to their hellish decadence._

 _In retaliation, Brandon III Stark massacred any Children that were found during the two decades of his reign and forbid them to live in any lands were a Stark ruled. The survivors of this forest-dwelling race rushed to the south, where they would be ended by the Andal migrations, or to Beyond-the-Wall, where they rapidly became no more than a memory._

 _The Children were nearly gone, but their vengeance was not stopped by their disappearance. Ancient wards between the Wall and the antic prison were severed. Any delegation of Queen Nyssa which tried to contact Castle Black or Winterfell was ambushed and killed. Joramun's descendants, the defeated clans of the Night's War, became the wildlings we knew in 298 after the Conquest. Dying, the First King-Beyond-the-Wall was interned in a weirwood, becoming the first greenseer, a weapon the Children were going to use against the green priests and the humans._

 _Nyssa followers fell to the dark dreams, the lies and the manipulations of the demon they were guarding. It took centuries, but the Great Other had all the time in the word. Nyssa was the last to succumb, but fall she did. With an implacable determination, the Great Other had succeeded. The winners of the First Long Night had become the White Walkers the Westerosi and Essossi were going to fight in the Second._

 _With several deranged wildlings like the infamous Craster, the numbers of the former humans grew. The Children, embittered by their losses that they were never in measure to recover, led to their doom the wizards and sorcerers the North had in its ranks. As for the South, the Andals would handle that problem. Seasons succeeded to season, growing more unbalanced as the Great Other grew in strength again. Winter followed winter. Memories of the First Long Night were lost. Those of the Night's War that followed did not last long. Bereft of magic, their pride and their inheritance, humans fought brutal civil wars. Songs of real events became legends. Legends became myths. Even myths in the end were mixed and half-tales, mere drop of truth in an ocean of ignorance._

 _The rest everyone in Westeros knows it. The War of the Eight Kings. The Second Long Night. The Battle of the Last Alliance._

 _How about after eight millennia of betrayal and treacheries, the Children realised that after all, they had to do something to save this world, but that they had sabotaged every chance of victory they had hundreds of seasons ago. Two hundred and ninety-eight years after the Conqueror was crowned, they had only a bastard named Bloodraven, formerly known as the illegitimate Targaryen Brynden Rivers...and my brother Brandon Stark. The irony was painful. Azor Ahai had come from an unknown country, but his most striking feature had been his silver hair, and his chief lieutenant had been the most famous architect of the First Men._

 _Nevertheless the Children and their aging greenseer bungled even this. No warning was conveyed to the Night's Watch, to the wildlings or to anyone living. It was not between Ser Massey's meeting with a tree we knew Children still existed for sure._

 _And then I knew, looking at these dead eyes, hearing this dead voice, that Bran had died long ago. No Stark worth his name would have accepted working with this treacherous race, not when he knew betrayal of the pack was as certain as the sun rose in the east. Only the greenseer remained. I asked my brother where his direwolf was. And he told me he didn't know. He didn't know! A bonded animal is part of yourself, no matter the distance and the relationship you have with your partner. A being that had refused the bond was neither a Stark nor a human. The look this Bran's look-alike was not the one a brother gives to his sister. It was the ones the Others had for the humans. Cold, vicious, uncaring. A monster. And I seriously doubt as I write these lines the greenseer would have revealed so much if he we didn't already know a lot of their dark dirty secrets._

 _How dare this monster denigrate our sacrifices? How dare this greenseer say he had saved us all by killing an old man named Walder, giving a funny Southron the way to arrive to the battlefield in time and lead an attack of trees that may have slowed the Night's Queen for a blink of an eye? Thousands of men, no, tens of thousands men, women and children had seen their blood pouring on the fallen snow, facing an enemy they could not defeat! Westeros entire armies had seen their own friends, lovers and lieges being stacked in pile of corpses, then being forced to kill and mutilate them when there was not enough time to set them on fire!_

 _At this moment I would have liked nothing better than set this damned tree on fire and kill this near-extinct race for good. But I didn't. Kinslaying was wrong, and besides it was clear, looking at the half-score of Children in front of me, that they were not going to be on this earth for long._

 _I took all the bones of Brandon's party with me when I departed to Tyrion's Breach. Jojen Reed and Summer, plus others I would never know the name. At least I saved Hodor. The gentle giant had waited for us all these years, and with the help of those versed in food deprivation, I brought him back to Winterfell. I gave him a house in Winterfell, and he married a joyous wife, giving her two girls and one boy. His exclamations of Hodor warmed my heart._

 _I knew enough now to explain to my sworn swords why the Children were never to be trusted. At this moment, I was never so happy that Mother and Father were dead. Knowing that Bran had become this...it would have killed them._

 _This is not all bad. The harvests have been plentiful this year, and the North has well recovered from the devastation._

 _I am Arya Stark. Wielder of Dark Sister, Commander of the Army of the Dawn, Mistress of the Pack, Bonded to Nymeria, Lady of the Dark Fort._

 _I know that in centuries or millennia, the Queen will falter and Night will come again to our realms. But when it comes, the Starks will be ready to fight it. The North will be ready to fight it._

 _The North Remembers. I remember._

 _And in the night, there will be always brothers and sisters to swear an oath to protect the realms of men._

Extract from the _Whispers of the Night_ , written in 350AC by Princess Arya Stark.

" _Night gathers, and now our watch begins..._ " Soldiers at the Battle of the Last Alliance, 301AC.

 _"Stay on your guard. That the Others have no dragons anymore doesn't mean they have no surprises for us left._ " King Robb Stark, 301AC.

 _"-This is our last battle. Whatever happens, hold your positions._

 _-And if we are overrun or dead?_

 _-Continue to fight. On our side_."

Conversation between King Stannis Baratheon and Lord Anders Yronwood, 301AC.

Should any of the best commanding officers of Westeros had been asked where the great battle of the Second Long Night was to be fought beforehand, before the Wall was breached and horror came into the men's realms, there were high odds the answer would not have been the Bloody Gate. Optimists warriors and maesters would have placed it at the Wall or in the vicinity of it, as surely the Night's Watch and the North united would have been enough to keep the threat Beyond-the-Wall. More pessimistic men would have answered Winterfell, White Harbor or Moat Cailin. Students of history the Trident, in a rather ironic twist of the war fought by Robert Baratheon and the rebels united in their defiance of the Targaryen dynasty. Doomsayers would have mentioned places like Highgarden or King's Landing. But few would have thought of the Bloody Gate. Especially with the humans on a western defensive position.

But this was what had happened. Close to half of the Vale had been overrun by the Others. Most of the North had seen some of the most vicious and disputed battles in existence take place. And now the climax of the winter war had come.

The silence came in the snowy pass. Both sides contemplated their opponent. For those having the minds to recognise a threat and feel fear, this was a scene plunged from their darkest nightmares. Even at the Battle of the Frozen Tears, there had not been that many troops gathered for the battle.

On the east, the dark legions of the Others. All the White Walkers, the wights and the monsters the Night's Queen had been able to rally in such a short of amount of time. The Night's Queen best troops granted, with the quasi-totality of her remaining battalions. Tens of thousands wights, perhaps as many as a hundred thousand human corpses.

For the first time, it did not seem insurmountable odds.

On the west, the veterans of the North, Reach, Dorne, Riverlands and Stormlands, bolstered by remnants from the Vale, Crownlands, Iron Islands and Westerlands. Hard and bloodied forces by countless battles, years of hard fighting and the rigor of military life. Knights having marched in bloodbaths that no sermon of the Faith had mentioned. Men-at-arms having seen their comrades been bled and bled again as the War of the Eight Kings and then the abominations decimated their ranks. Men and women like Thoros of Myr, Sandor Clegane, Daven Lannister, Ander Yronwood, Oberyn Martell, Jon Umber, Rickard Karstark, Garlan Tyrell, Roose Bolton, and of course Kings Robb Stark and King Stannis Baratheon.

It was the end of a long journey. It was the moment of destiny. It was kill or be killed. But it was only what the soldiers knew when the first warhorns sounded to call to arms the living for the carnage to come.

The attack, as it had been eminently predictable, started by a massive wight charge. And by massive, it meant huge and endless. In one moment, over sixty thousands wights, a great majority human, but with single White Walkers and a good diversity of animals, were launched in a suicidal, mad move.

The defences of humanity, that thousands of soldiers had passed days and fortnights to dig and build, resisted. Barely. The archers had what was called later an abundance of targets: there was no need to target something, there were so many enemies an arrow loosed was unavoidably going to hit at least one enemy if the man behind the bow know how to use it.

When the order was given to loosen the projectiles, the first ranks of the dead army were engulfed in flames. The Greatjon had commanded, in his own inimitable words, that he wanted to smell the odour of roasted wight for his dinner and his soldiers obliged. Had the undead been able to feel fear, there would have been a rout forming at the flame rivers pouring in their formations. But the dead thralls could not, and so they simply died.

Ice spider, giant wight, White Walker, wyvern or fallen Vale soldier, it did not matter: whatever thing managed to reach the fortification was hurled back into the pyre, smashed, pulverised, decapitated, mutilated and sometimes all of the above. For the first time, there were enough Valyrian blades on the battlefield to make a difference; chief among them Robb Stark, who had decided to wield Black Dawn and Wolf's Paw simultaneously, and was massacring wight by the scores with the blades forged from Ice.

This dozens acts of heroism did not last. The Night's Queen had evidently acknowledged that the humans were not going to roll over and surrender, and the armies of the Long Night had arrived too late to get rid of the first reaction forces of Lord Rickard Karstark while they were still separated from the Last Alliance veterans.

It was time to employ more powerful and desperate means. At the light of the inferno they had themselves lightened, the kings, lords, knights and warriors of Westeros saw an ice siege engine take position. It was oddly familiar, and for good reason. This was the war device that had breached the Wall.

A war council gathered in urgency among the commanders who had the ability to do so. The Wall Crusher, as this thing had already been named by unimaginative soldiers, was out of range of the most skilled archers. The living had not the advantages they had been granted at the Wall. And this time, no one was under illusion their hastily stone and ice walls could protect. If the Wall Crusher fired, it was going to be a general massacre. The problem was that no one had a solution, pressed as they were by waves after waves of wights. No sane options. No strategies that were not suicidal from any perspective.

While the Alliance commanders prepared to sound the retreat, Prince Oberyn Martell had realised the danger on the frontlines and decided to go with a last mad gambit. Taking over one hundred mounted men with him, mostly Dornish ones, the Red Viper sallied in an impossible move out of the fortifications, trying to reach the Wall Crusher before it was too late.

It went without saying it was over from the moment the attack had been sounded. There had to be over twenty thousand wights and Others on the most direct path to the Dornish goal. And just behind them came the Night's Queen on her big polar bear. If the Last Alliance had mounted a proper coordinated attack, maybe it would have been feasible. Of the one hundred men, only the Red Viper, managed to arrive to the Night's Queen. However, the ice sovereign did not deign fight him in duel. Prince Oberyn Martell had neglected his flanks, and a common ice warrior cut him almost in half. The mortal remnants of the brother of the defunct Doran Martell were trampled in a humiliating manner by the polar bear afterwards.

The Westerosi men-at-arms had not the time to regain their wits from this shock.

The Wall Crusher fired.


	101. Azor Ahai

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Bloody Gate, Azor Ahai or the Long Night.

X59: To be fair, Arya has had to face a lot of grim-darkness...and it's less a case of 'I'm always right' than 'that's the excuse for abandoning your family?'. And she isn't completely wrong. Treason revelations aside, Bloodraven has so far in canon proven totally useless to counter the Others. Of course we don't the details, but still...

Bran lost himself. This type of magic is dangerously addictive, and the armies of the North took a long time to reach the weirwood tree where he sat.

Oh, the Children betrayed humanity, there's no doubt about that. What Arya just 'forgot' (but that she has no really knowledge to verify) is that the First Men tried a genocide long ago on the Children of the Forest, well before the Long Night. So in fact the Children's reaction is more a new revenge for being expulsed of their lands...the problem is that the circle of retaliation can only end with the disappearance of one race. And humanity won that fight.

Eduard Kassel: Thanks! Well, like everything in Westeros, the book has huge shadows and raises more questions. And given that it's not public, conspiracies theories will abound...

Loras had the excuse of young age and several deaths to make him like this. Oberyn didn't need that kind of excuses...

Paul: The lordships of the Reach were in general dealt on a case per case basis, and the Long Night has created even more problems with knights and minor nobles dying on the battlefield. In the end, who will inherit a title depends on surviving on the battlefield and being in a good relationship with the person who emerges on top. Because needless to say, there are a lot of conflicting claims...fortunately, the war has created huge holes in the ranks of the chivalry and there are plenty of prizes to distribute. I will deal with most in the post-war situation.

Bran killed Walder with a Bloodraven power...the equivalent of warging into an animal at long-distance and pouring a poison into a drink. No need for more.

The Others will come back...or not. Humanity is not going to deploy thousands of warriors to do the same mistake all over again.

Sage of Wind Dragons: Hey, we are very fast nearing on the end of the Long Night, so I enjoy giving clues on what is going to happen next. And yes, Arya has very biased views...of course she has reasons for her view of this world.

Oberyn...him surviving the end of the war would have caused a lot more problems, considering his new relation with Asha and the last civil war in Dorne.

yesboss21: Hmm...you're right we can consider the term 'novel', with 100 chapters and over a quarter of million words. Frankly, I had never expected it for it to grow to such proportions.

A lot of what I've written is NOT theory for GRRM's utopian next book that we desperately wait. It's my imagination coupled with the few clues and maps we have on every region of Essos, Westeros and other areas, plus a good dose of fantastic to make it more epic.

TaMpura: Yeah, but this is Westeros...where the dead walked again, magic is very real, and some abominations can wait thousands of years for their revenge.

skipper 1337: Yeah, this war has humble beginnings...however one might argue the one of the books is not over yet, so who knows what might happen...

Ravon Stark was the first Night's King, killed during the war against Joramun. Benjen Stark was the second, and was killed in the Great Battle of the Wall.

House Dayne's members have always been the Sword of the Mornings, yes. As for the reason they aren't wargs...simply ignorance of their roots and lack of proper animals. Remember that even the Starks know little of their ancient history, given how they react to their direwolves at first...

Yep, it was chilling and the Great Other has warp-similarities...

melubarv: It isn't. Even in canon, becoming paralysed and then being groomed up to be part of a tree is not exactly the career advancement every noble of Westeros dreams of.

Guest: Thanks! Yes, I strongly implied humanity won at Yi-Ti (and in Westeros too for that matter). For me, it was a deliberate choice. The Long Night comes, but humanity fights and against all odds survives. No needs to make a darker piece, there is enough tragedy in ASOIAF...

HeroHearth: Jon hasn't been explicitly known as the son of Lyanna and Rhaegar, because there is only one man aware of his parentage, and Lord Reed has had no opportunity to reveal him the truth.

Whether it will be revealed or not...I won't spoil anything.

thepkrgmc: It's sure humanity is going to try another way, since it's clear the previous one had catastrophically failed and gave the Great Other his current army. Whether it will work...

As for the Night's Watch, it isn't going to survive in its current form. Too many losses and not enough popular for recruitment.

 **Azor Ahai**

 **The Battle of the Last Alliance Part II**

" _There will come a day after a long summer when the star bleed and the cold breath of darkness fall heavy upon the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw the fire from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him_." Ancient prophecy concerning Azor Ahai, five thousand years before Aegon's Conquest. Source considered unreliable.

" _Tell my daughter... I love her_." Last words of King Stannis Baratheon, 301AC.

" _Dawn and R'hllor! Fire for the God of Light_!" Thoros of Myr, 301AC.

" _The first one who thinks 'retreat', I rape his fucking corpse_!" Sandor 'the Hound' Clegane, 301AC.

"- _The battle could have better commenced, Ser Justin._

 _-I agree, Commander. But dawn is here. There is far enough time to win!_ " Conversation between Commander Jon Snow and Ser Justin Massey, 301AC.

The Wall Crusher fired.

If any of the one hundred men Prince Oberyn Martell had taken with him had survived to that point, then their survival was not for long as the ice ray emerging from the Wall Crusher annihilated anything in its path, alive and dead beings alike.

Two score of Others sorcerers had given their power to fire this blast and the effect was terrible to see, several leagues away or not. The snow was vaporised. The ice broke in tens of thousands shards. The rocks emitted a tortured shriek...and then the magic-powered devastation touched the base of the human fortifications.

There was a monumental explosion and for a long moment the flames and lights of the two sides were extinguished. It did not last, soon enough thousand of torches and sorcery orbs were brandished again, revealing the result of the Wall Breaker's shot.

A gaping hole. Where stone, ice and everything in between had been deliberately erected to shield the living from the night, now there was nothing left. It was not exactly massive, by all accounts three cavalrymen would have had difficulties passing at the same time at anything but a slow pace. But it was enough for the designs of the Night's Queen.

A breach had been created in the defences. Loud shrieks of triumph mounted from the White Walkers lines, as the abominations damned spirits were raised by this breakthrough. The Night's Queen drew her sword and pointed it directly towards the gap. No more hesitation. No more subtlety. An uncountable torrent of wights charged for the massacre. Their undead masters had transferred to their dead minds their hate of all living things, and now the animals, the birds and the resurrected humans were closing for the kill. Again they were disappointed.

The veterans of the Last Alliance had taken into their plans the possibility of a breach. There were enough Northerners, Free Folk and allied soldiers to have survived the Great Battle of the Wall. While no one had thought the Others had the strategic mind to charge their end-of-times device aboard their iceberg fleet and transport it on the escarped roads of the Vale, King Robb Stark and King Stannis Baratheon had accepted that the Others had perhaps many weapons waiting to breach the citadels of Westeros.

Several horns sounded, and a powerful cohort of Manderly and Stormlands pikesmen disengaged from their posts and formed several compact lines to defend the breach. In the mean time, the reserves of fire and every product more or less combustible were thrown, burning thousands of the fastest wights in an inferno. Every White Walker warrior trying to cross the fire using the cold aura was noticed and received a dragonglass arrowhead in the head the instant after.

Every mortal army would have disengaged after taking such a pounding. And it was a brute, merciless barrage. Lord Edmure Tully and his uncle Ser Brynden had recognised the defensive advantages of the Bloody Gate, and sent three large trebuchets by barge and road from the Whispering Wood to the westernmost Vale bastion. Nicknamed _Kingslayer Fall_ , _Lion Killer_ and _Tyrant's Roaster_ , the huge siege engines pummelled the wights' lines. Relentlessly, the archers on the undamaged walls threw their arrows, killing the biggest monsters, the ice spiders, searching of their gaze the White Walkers mastering this abominable army. The wall of pikes tore apart indiscriminately everything trying to dislodge them from their positions. One in four spears and pikes were obsidian, a very lethal surprise for the Others that tried to lead an audacious strike in the furious assault. A breach had be created, yes...but the warriors guarding it were much determined for it to be the final grave of the Long Night. And as hundreds of corpses were slain, and the lines of the Northmen, Westerners and other Westerosi held, it appeared there was a good chance for it to happen.

More than ever, the Night's Queen and her senior commanders had to regret not having dragons anymore to command. The improvised eastern fortifications guarding the Bloody Gate were horribly vulnerable to an air bombardment. Hellfrost or one of its lesser cousins would have caused a disaster in such an environment. The rare wyverns still flying were alas unable to accomplish more than serve as target practise for the experimented Riverlanders and Marcher archers.

A new order was given by the Night's Queen, with a clear and malicious intent. If one shot of the Wall Crusher was not enough, then the Wall Crusher would fire again. And again. Until there were no more humans, no fortifications, nothing living standing. For the first time, the men fighting in top of the ramparts saw Others disobey to their sovereign. It was not hard to guess why. Firing once the Wall Crusher had nearly demolished the defensive organisation of the Last Alliance, but the two score of Others sorcerers had been brought to their knees by the magic that had been drained from them. In the hellish blue lights, one could see the deleterious effects of the Wall Crusher. For the first time, humans could see White Walkers whose individual appearance was less than perfect. Older. Grimmer. Haunted. Diminished.

Magic was not just a weapon for the Others fighting in the Second Night. It was their life essence. Deprived of it, they died in an atrocious agony. And that was exactly what was going to happen if they fired relentlessly the Wall Crusher. While magic was more potent in the Vale than it had been a decade ago, the ice sorcerers were far from their homeland. Far from the heart of their power. Too distant from the Great Other.

This did not stop the Night's Queen to crush ruthlessly this mutiny attempt. The sovereign of the Lands of Always Winter had understood that her forces had to win this battle at all costs. Else the White Walkers were not going to worry about another battle; they would be reduced to ice shards or dragged to some unpleasant dungeons where their former victims would explain them how the Long Night had been a very bad idea. Desperate times called for desperate choices. And this was a desperate time indeed.

The sorcerers took position for a second time. For half of them, tired from the long fight and having had to launch long-range spells to substitute for the death of the dragons, it was the last action they would ever entertain.

The Wall-Crusher fired a second time.

A ray of light that mocked the laws of reality by its simple existence appeared and created a second breach in the Last Alliance walls, killing hundreds of warriors, including Lord Rickard Karstark and Commander Cotter Pyke. Of course the living were far from the hundred of victims claimed by the sorcery. Half of the Others involved expired, the effort having proven too much for them. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands wights were gone, destroyed by their masters because no warning or sally was to disrupt this second attack. This time, the Kings and their vassals weren't able to reinforce the new breach. The Others on the other hand considered it a great success. If the thralls that had just been risen were destroyed, so be it. The White Walkers could always raise more.

The Last Alliance had at this moment arrived to the point where all their contingencies had been used. Most of the reserves were fighting or dead. By battalion or coherent groups, infantry ran to make sure the breach was filled, but in their hurry left some portions of the walls undefended.

Not that it was that important. The Night's Queen released all the wights she had in reserve, and to lead them were over two thousand White Walkers. If this force passed the second gap, the battle was going to be a repeat of the huge rout of the Frozen Tears.

But challenging a group of Others in the open was no small feat. Being armed with obsidian weapons made the odds better, but Others were faster, operated better in winter conditions and critically, they had not been involved in the battle until that point. The Lannister force under Ser Daven whose shields were the last rampart died in a mighty clash of arms. Yet for every human that was shredded by the abominations, one ice warrior went down and sometimes more as the archers regained heart and unleashed a fire rain upon everything shining in the dark blue lights.

Ser Daven Lannister fell against five Others, killing three before finally succumbing. To his side, Lord Jonos Bracken was killed when one of the last mammoth wights tried to engage a breakthrough. Lord Lucias Vypren was cut in half by a White Walkers sword. Lord Humphrey Gower and his men were cut, trampled and destroyed so badly no one after the battle knew where all the pieces had gone. The White Walkers showed no mercy, no regret and no fear in this attack. Famous knight or indebted men-at-arms, you died all the same. The terrible ice swords reaped a fearsome tally.

But this bloody engagement was not one-sided, and it had given time for the rest of the great human commanders to assess the situation. And desperation worked both ways. Seeing how the battle was turning, there was little doubt in the hearts of the lords and smallfolk what was about to happen should they lose. King Stannis Baratheon decided thus to play the last power still available. Shouting to his guard to rally, the Storm King demanded that the Red Priests brought Lightbringer to him.

The last of the three Baratheon brothers took the flaming sword in his right hand and charged in the fray, screaming to his bannersmen to follow him.

Like a single man, the Stormlanders screamed an old war cry of the Stormlands echoed in the frozen air.

"THE LAST STORM! THE LAST STORM!"

Quickly followed by "STANNIS KING!"

The effect was nothing short of an apocalypse for the Others. If Valyrian Steel was their bane, then Lightbringer was several orders worse. The sword first forged thousands of years ago was the flame, a pure flame that didn't even need to be plunged into their hearts. Simple proximity was weakening the White Walkers; clashing sword against sword was largely sufficient for the ice monsters to fall in agony, screaming for anyone to release them of their torment. Suddenly the Others did not advance. They were blocked, massacred by King Stannis. Those that survived to assess the situation were withdrawing, and not voluntarily. Feet by feet, they were pushed back. Hundreds of them were slain. Each strike of Lightbringer was exploding several wights and White Walkers. Behind King Stannis came Lord Lester Morrigen and Ser Donnel Swann, the entire remaining strength of the Stormlands chivalry. And the White Walkers were unable to confront Lightbringer, scores of them dying at every instant.

But King Stannis was not Azor Ahai. The counter-offensive had not lasted a great amount of time, but already the skin of the king was burning, unable to contain the sheer magical power. Targaryen ancestry allowed King Stannis to wield Lightbringer for more time than any aspirant who had tried their chance (save of course Queen Daenerys) but it was not a divine protection. Slowly, the forces of King Stannis failed. The Storm King had to be carried out of the melee by Lord Devan Seaworth and Ser Donnel Swann.

"Tell my daughter I love her." Were the King's last words.

Lightbringer fell from the dark and charred royal hand.

King Stannis was dead.

King Stannis Baratheon the First of His Name was dead but there was no time to mourn. The Night's Queen had seen the humans' defiance, and was now coming to them with everything. Every single last White Walker was now unleashed. All the wights, from the biggest to the most pitiful. From rat and slobber wights to the disabled human corpses. A spectacle that should never have been possible, reeking of death and abominations.

The Red Priest Thoros of Myr took the magical sword.

If the Others thought they had been smashed and pulverised by the arm of King Stannis, but that it was now their turn to retaliate, then their hopes were loudly smashed.

"Dawn and R'hllor! Fire for the God of Light!" Screamed the Red Priest of the Brotherhood Without Banners before charging anew in the battle. All told, Thoros of Myr lasted without doubt less time than King Stannis. But the Others had little reason to rejoice. In the time it took for the Red Priest be killed by his own weapon, hundreds more White Walkers had been slain. This was not a rate of losses they could afford, and the two breaches had still not been won.

But the two armies were now mutually engaged in a slaughter to the death, where heroes died at every second, some visible to all, others missing, with no one able to know when exactly they had died. The Wylde warriors were never able to recount what had happened to their liege Lord Casper. Lord Lester Morrigen proved unable to best the Night's Queen, and perished by her sword.

The Battle of the Last Alliance had become the last climax of an awful conflict. The horrible episode in a war that had already surpassed the casualties of every war fought on Westerosi soil. It was the Night's Queen who maintained the forces of the Long Night, commented the knights after the fact. The Ice Queen was a whirlwind of destruction an unstoppable force. Everywhere she went, obscurity and death followed. No man was able to stand her, duel and live.

For a moment after Thoros of Myr's death, it seemed that the Others were able to turn the tide. Their wights had in most cases being thinned by ninth-tenths of their original contingent, but humanity had incurred grievous casualties too.

The moment of respite didn't last. Sandor Clegane pushed a series of insults this author feels unable to report here, and an unknown knight whose name will never be known to history grabbed Lightbringer.

The third Last Alliance charge devastated everything on its path, sending to Hell all sort of damned creatures. Two sorcerers were slain and suddenly the way was free to the Night's Queen. In a last ditch, one score of the Brotherhood of the Hound frayed themselves a path in the heart of the demons, followed by Lord Roose Bolton and the elite of the Dreadfort.

But destiny had other plans. Sandor Clegane and the majority of his troops were basted away by a spell of unbelievable power. The Hound and his best soldiers would survive their wounds, but they were unable to recover in time. The knight who carried Lightbringer crumbled on his knees and burnt entirely, so much there was nothing of him and his armour but ashes. His identity has been lost forever, though legend felt free to cover this void and proposed name like Ser Barristan Selmy, Tyrion Lannister and other unlikely individuals.

Roose Bolton was left alone to fight in duel the Night's Queen, and it was not something any warrior was supposed to survive. One spear forged in dragonglass and a flayer Valyrian knife were the Master of the Dreadfort's weapons, but the Night's Queen was swift like the cold winds, and wielded only her sword, benefitting of a considerable speed and reflex advantage. Lord Roose Bolton did his best and lasted almost two turn of small hourglasses, and even managed to inflict a small wound on his terrible adversary.

But unlike any other ice being, a stab with Valyrian Steel was not enough to vanquish the Night's Queen. The Master of House Bolton tried to grab Lightbringer and finish the Night's Queen. His opponent did not offer him the opportunity. The white bear wight threw the flame sword far away from the battleground before exploding in flames. In a perfect reverse strike, the Night's Queen pushed her cold blade in the throat of Lord Roose in spite of the steel protecting it.

The Night's Queen screamed in triumph, and directed her attention back to the Westerosi defying her.

And suddenly, the Night was broken. The exclamations of the Others turned to fear, as roots surrounded their Queen, if only a few seconds. And in the sky a long awaited light came.

After so many months of darkness and gray days, the living and the Others blinked, thinking their eyes were abandoning them. But here it was. Between the dark clouds, a timid ray of sun was passing though.

For the armies of Winter and Death, it was an omen of despair. For the Last Alliance, it was the moment every warrior regained hope. King Robb Stark, who had just cleaved in several neat parts an Other champion, laughed and pointed his arm to the east.

On the eastern pass, an army was taking position. An human army. The Last Alliance survivors didn't know most of the banners composing these reinforcements, but who cared?

"FOR WESTEROS AND FOR THE DAWN!"

The Night's Queen screamed in rage. In her haste to get rid of Lightbringer, the sword had been sent far away. Too far. So far, it was only a few feet away from the incoming soldiers.

In the fresh snow, a red-haired figure advanced and grabbed the Sword of Heroes. Instantly, a flash of light so bright it reminded everyone the sun blinded everyone having the misfortune to look at it directly.

Ygritte of the Free Folk, Dragonslayer of Hellfrost and Dreadwing, had drawn Lightbringer.

Azor Ahai had been revealed. And now in the distance, the roar of a dragon was heard...


	102. Heroes are Eternal

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Long Night, Azor Ahai or Ygritte. Too bad.

X59: Yep, so many fics finish with Roose Bolton as one of the worst villains ever...this story proves the Master of the Dreadfort can be a hero under different conditions.

Aelila: Yes kissed by fire...winter is still going to be a problem but less violent as the Others are diminished, and after all these battles, the Westerosi will find they can deal with the cold...

Eduard Kassel: The roots were the Old Gods power fuelled by a certain greenseer. The sun however is the increasingly fragile hold the Others had over the weather. Plus maybe a little help from the Seven...

Paul: Twenty five Black Brothers...it's going to be around this, yes. I don't have to kill anyone, in theory. But with the opposition consisting of thousands Others, it's pretty much a guarantee there are going to be famous heroes falling. I don't write a one-sided confrontation...

Well after the war there's going to be a feeling of letting the old grudges die. All the Lannister that have made it alive are going to survive, though most are going to be well diminished in status.

Nope, House Bolton isn't going to be extinct. I say no more...

Regrets duly noted, but I wasn't about to choose Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen for the job. I love too much twisting GRRM's job for that.

Sage of Wind Dragons: Nope, nope. Ygritte is the true Azor Ahai...but you're right it's a bloodline. A long, long time ago, the ancestors of the Free Folk fought for the dawn and some were quite close...

And yes, Robb is the last true King of the original five which were crowned at the start of the war. Survival for the crowned heads is not a guarantee...

yesboss21: Thanks! Nice guess, but Lightbringer fate will not be to vanish or to say with its wielder indefinitely...

TaMpura: Thanks, though I didn't see as very obvious before Ygritte became a Dragonslayer...

wawo20,pettersoderberg01, Darkcush, drakensis, raw666, HeroHearth, Gremlin Jack: I see a lot of readers were surprised by my choice for Azor Ahai...

bigdaddycrag01: Thanks!

Rhagar: Yes, the Prophecy was completely deformed, Nyssa was not totally dead, Azor Ahai died at the end of the First Long Night...none of it made it to the present age. Sometimes, time is the worst possible enemy...

skipper 1337: Yes the Siege of Winterfell was lifted some chapters ago.

The Night's Queen is Nyssa. Jon is simply Jon...and the lover of Azor Ahai. Glad you liked it!

thepkrgmc: Yes, it's one of the greatest sacrifices one might ask to a man...

 **Heroes are Eternal**

 **The Battle of the Last Alliance Part III**

" _Victory. Victory at last._ " Lord Edmure Tully, 301AC.

" _The Night is over! The Night is over! We are still alive Edd!_ " Black Brother Pypar, 301AC.

" _FOR THE DAWN!_ " General battle-cry of the Last Alliance army, 301AC.

" _Sometimes legends are grossly exaggerated. But this one...this one was greater than every other. We have our happy ending_." Ser Justin Massey, 301AC.

" _The witch is dead and the sun comes back. VICTORY!_ " Lord Jon 'Greatjon' Umber, 301AC.

In hindsight, one of the worst mistakes of the Night's Queen had been to not finish the forces defending the Eyrie when she had the means to do so. Of course, this tactical blunder was only the last one in a long series of oversights. Thorough the Long Night having raged from Beyond-the-Wall to the Bloody Gate, humanity had been amazed by the ability of their opponents to go from extraordinary tactical moves to charges and judgements that even the dumbest Ironborn reaver would have watched with piety.

That said, the survivors of the Dragonfall were not exactly cheering when the scouts led by Black Brother Grenn reported close to two thousand wights and fifty Others blockading the only way out of the pass. Compared to the mighty legions having stormed the Eyrie defences, it was not that an impressive number, but all was relative. To shatter these wights, the men and women retrenched behind the Moon walls would have to go on the offensive, in a very snowy battlefield where all the advantages were in the abominations favour. Worse, the last sentinels to come back brought back the news there was an ice dragon in the middle of the blocking force.

A lot of despair and cries of defeat resonated in the night.

But after the initial panic, all the living paused to wonder. Yes, it was an ice dragon...but why in the Seven Hells had the Night's Queen left it here? Other disturbing question, why had it not been engaged at the Dragonfall when the intervention of another ice-breathing reptile could have transformed defeat into victory?

The small number of ice dragons seen in this war let Commander Jon Snow and Lord Andar Royce draw the conclusion this was the beast that had fought to Hellfrost side in the Battle of the Frozen Tears. And like a lot of warriors present on that mourned day, the warriors knew the second ice dragon had been wounded. How much was the most important question. If the answer was 'very badly', the men and women having survived the Second Battle of the Gates of the Moon had a chance. If not, then they would all go to their deaths. No one was able to forget how potent the frozen breath of a dragon was, not when the ramparts of the very fortress they lived had been on the edge of destruction by said weapon.

In definitive, decision was made to attempt the assault. No one doubted the Night's Queen had mustered her legions anew for the great battle against all Westerosi, and this was a chance, no matter how weak or insignificant, to fall on her rear and decimate utterly the Others in a decisive battle. Arcs were banded. The last obsidian spears were repaired. Swords were drawn. A last time, the survivors of the Vale campaign were going to war.

Under 'Dragonslayer' Ygritte, Lord Albar Royce and several other knights of the Vale plus the last Brothers of the Night's Watch, the humans took position on the Others flanks by partially climbing the first vertical rocks of the mountains surrounding the Lance. The animated corpses did not react. Nor did the Others, but to be realistic without their pet ice spiders on site, the White Walkers would not have been able to do much anyway save erase the effect of surprise.

The surprise by a singular turn of fates did not last long. Coming out of the dark and persistent fog, the lost party of Ser Justin Massey emerged to face itself face-to-face with the Others. For one second, the humans and the dwellers of the Land of Always Winter looked at each other, as if trying to assess how this ridiculous situation had been made possible. Then Ser Justin decapitated its opponent with an obsidian dagger and the fight was on. The Eyrie warriors descended the vertical slopes, cornering scores of ice warriors before they had the time to assess the situation.

Caught between two forces and having not prepared in the least for this eventuality, the Others were rapidly dispatched, leaving the wights immobile, easy prey for the veterans Valemen and their unexpected allies. The ice dragon had not moved an icy scale.

As they closed the distance, the allied soldiers realised the dragon had good reasons to stay immobile. Maybe the beast (nicknamed the Last Frost by some unimaginative drunkards) had survived where Rhaegal had not, but it had been a very near thing. One wing was entirely gone, and the injuries were so deep it was a miracle the dragon had still some life or the equivalent of the Other's vitality in the veins.

There was more to discover. In a nearby tent, the victorious force found the dragon's rider, who was not in a better state. In fact, so close were dragon and the female Other rider from death (or as cynical historians put it, close to un-life) that they showed no sign they were aware of being encircled by multitude of enemies.

Commander Jon Snow and the rest of the commanders were debating what to do about this unexpected burden when reality shifted and an arch of fire tore open the snowy fields. A fiery magical gate opened, and thousands of Essossi reinforcements poured through.

At first, the Royce men cheered, always happy to see more regiments and formation arrive to fight for the Dawn in these trying times, and taking this apparition as a benediction from the Old or the New Gods. Reality was far less pleasant. The second echelon of Targaryen troops had been joined by some radical Red Priests from an unknown Free City (through the maesters and historians today have limited the possibilities to Asshai or Qohor), who had engineered a ritual allowing the Essossi to arrive in time for the last battle. But the cost made the Westerosi pale in shock, because the ritual had demanded a price in blood, flesh and souls few would have considered even thinking about paying. Hundreds of dying soldiers, crippled warriors and cowardly deserters had been delivered to the flames to open this portal from Old Anchor to the Gates of the Moon. It had worked: over ten thousand soldiers were here, where there should have been fortnights away walking in these winter conditions. But the Vale troops and their comrades regarded the newcomers with a fair bit of suspicion. Sacrificing someone in the flames was not exactly the epitome of chivalry, and the arguments 'it was only a Dothraki' or 'they were all going to die anyway' did not exactly find grace to their eyes.

The relationship between the different components of the alliance grew even more strained when the Red Priests made their attempt to resurrect Drogon.

The Northerners, the Valemen, the Black Brothers, and for that matter all the men and women present who did not worship R'hllor voiced a lot of objection against this action. Resurrecting people, animals, birds or whatever species from the death was by this point of the war an aptitude firmly belonging to the White Walkers in the minds of the people, no matter that a few magic-users had been seen on both sides of the Narrow Sea reviving recently fallen warriors.

That unavoidably there needed to be a sacrifice, in this case the agonising ice dragon and the Other having ridden it (which would later during interrogation of the prisoners be identified as the Night's Queen sister), did not improve the general opinion of the act.

Queen Daenerys Targaryen agreed to the Priests proposal, and on this day the Northern opinion divided; half acknowledging that the bond of a dragon was a link so vital a rider would do anything to have a chance to restore it, and half vilifying this practise of wizardry and witchcraft. This point said, many witnesses remarked the Queen of Meereen and Volantis had become a shadow of herself since the death of her beloved black dragon; rarely sleeping or participating in councils of war, and sometimes fixing the skies for long hours without blinking.

The good news was the ritual worked. Drogon rose again from the flames, though weakened and famished. Quite ironically, it made thousands of sellswords and Freemen in the ranks more convinced than ever that the Mother of Dragons was Azor Ahai reborn. That said, the ritual was going to have terrible side effect in the days and fortnights thereafter. Three of the Red Priests did not survive the attempt, and the other half dozen would soon wish they had died.

The gathered army of the Gates of the Moon could press eastwards, hoping to arrive in time at the Bloody Gate. The rest from that point is history. Ygritte of the Free Folk drew Lightbringer and the Night's Queen screamed in rage.

For the Others, this battle in front of the Bloody Gate was now nothing short of catastrophic. Not only they had already lost in the last two battles their new overwhelming force of wights, but the number of White Walkers was rapidly tending towards zero. The Night's Queen may have proven unbeatable, but as Robb Stark and the Greatjon Umber ravaged their lines with Valyrian steel and dragonglass, this point was going to be increasingly irrelevant.

There was a limit to the number of enemies an ice warrior can face alone, after all, and if their sovereign remained alone on the battlefield, no doubt this particular limit was going to become known.

But it was more than that. For the first time perhaps in the war, a significant army of Others realised that ultimately, they weren't going to win. Not 'not going to win the battle', this specific scenario had already happened more than once, at Winterfell, White Harbor the Gates of the Moon and in many far-away battlefields. It was the deep shock of knowing the war had been fought...and lost. Symbolised by the first ray of sun which had been seen by the two sides, the Others fell powers were losing their grasp over Westeros...and everyone knew what it meant.

The Second Long Night, the second attempt for the forces of death and ice to wipe out humanity and establish a reign of darkness for eternity, was going to end in defeat.

Firing the Wall-Crusher again was beyond the magical means of the remaining Others forces. There was no more aerial support, whether dragons, wyverns or simple bird wights. The giant and mammoth wights that had spearheaded countless assaults were destroyed. Launching an assault, even if it was victorious, would generate more casualties. Casualties the White Walkers, not the wights, would have to endure. And thousands of them had already died and been shattered into ice shards.

The first part of the ongoing battle had proved the authority limits of the Ice Queen. The second broke them. Every single being that was in a state of thinking in the army of death realised its chances of seeing another night directly depended on escaping before the encirclement was complete.

Doubtlessly, a large core of ice warriors had acknowledged the fact union remained their strength...and that the passes not yet guarded by humanity could be their doom as much as the Last Alliance troops gathered on this battlefield. The question was exactly the one which was going to offer the best chances. That said, humanity was not going to wait for them to have a lot of reflexion time.

On the east, Ser Justin Massey, Lord Andar Royce and Commander Jon Snow sounded the charge behind the Dragonslayer Ygritte, Azor Ahai reborn. On the west, the war horns of the warriors having still breath in their bodies answered. Thousands of swords, axes, masses, spears and various pointed weapons were drawn.

A thunderous scream "FOR THE DAWN!" mounted in the air, and thousands of living plus a dragon plunged in the decisive battle for the fate of the world.

Drogon was the first to enter in action. The fire dragon delivered a hurricane of black flames onto the Wall Crusher and the Others siege engines, and incinerated them to the point there were not even ages to witness their existence.

All cohesion fell apart in the Other formation. This single wave of dragonfire from Drogon had been largely enough to ravage the already badly weakened ranks of the obscurity, and thereafter it was each Other for itself.

In theory, it sounded nice. In practise, it was a bit more complicated than that. Close to three quarters of the White Walkers had been locked in a fight to the death with Greatjon Umber, Lady Asha Greyjoy, King Robb Stark, Lord Garlan Tyrell and thousands of bloodthirsty veterans. While the last ranks could disengage and run, the first were a bit too pressed to sound the retreat.

The close quarters at which the battle was fought avoided dragonfire from being delivered upon their heads, but it was a very mixed mercy as this time it was the turn of the humans to pour a flow of opponents on the field and the Others to be outnumbered. Combined with scores of White Walkers trying to make a tactical withdrawal, and the experience was not pleasant for the ice warriors. Especially with Azor Ahai and Lightbringer rushing in the heart of the battle to slay the Night's Queen and end this war for good.

But the Night's Queen intention had not been to offer a duel of legend between two magical blades and the champions of the living and the dead. It was now to save as much as she could and live to fight another day.

Lord Albar Royce, Commander Blue Tiger and over two hundred sellswords tried to stop the Night's Queen. Emphasis on try. One spell shattered half of them in very tiny fragments, and the Ice Queen rammed her ice sword in a weakness of Albar's runic armour before finishing up the rest of the men having followed him.

But even the sovereign of the Others had had to slow down to deal with two hundred swords, allowing this time a Western group to catch her, led by Ser Brynden Tully, with the King in the North coming close behind.

Having received the lesson from their last misfortunes, the infantry tried to encircle the Ice Queen and tire her in hundreds of feints and small strikes. It had somehow worked at the Wall, and anyway those who had something in their skull knew a one-on-one fight with the sorceress was not going to end well. The problem with this strategy was that it required the opponent to be cooperative...and the Night's Queen was definitely not. Accelerating her movements to an incredible speed, the female Other increased her rhythm of attacks and magic ten-fold. Riverlanders and Northerners fell by the scores. Ser Brynden Tully was consumed in blue flames, and while he managed to extinguish them in time, the Blackfish would die two years later, never having fully recovered from this sorcery. King Robb Stark himself clashed with the Queen, with unnatural results: when Black Dawn and Wolf's Paw were intertwined with the frozen magical blade and able to deliver a significant blow, the Other sorceress threw another spell and in a shrieking that made thousands of humans and Others take their hands to their ears in pain, the two Valyrian swords merged into a single one, erasing the damage done from the Lannister-sworn smiths.

Profiting from the stupefaction of her opponent, the Night's Queen cut the King sword hand and was about to deliver the death strike when Lightbringer intercepted the move. 'Dragonslayer' Ygritte was here, and she was not alone. Close to five hundred men were taking position around this improvised and unplanned final duel.

The rare Others still alive were hunted or disappeared into the mountains fog.

The sun was reappearing, not the one of a deep, bright summer, but even a winter sun was better than the perpetual darkness endured in the last moons.

The Night's Queen raised her sword a last time, as if to salute the elements which abandoned her. And then the men and women charged. Ser Justin Massey was the first to find a breach in the inhuman Queen's incredible parades. Twenty-five warriors fell in that amount of time.

And then Lightbringer found the Night's Queen's heart.

For a moment, everything stopped. Ygritte pushed the enflamed blade until it tore out the Night's Queen back.

There was no scream which came out the Night's Queen lips. Just a small sigh. The Queen of the Others closed her eyes forever.

Unlike her subordinates, the Ice Queen did not burst in flames or explode in ice shards. She just...faded away.

The famous lords, knights, sellswords all confirmed the story, saying it was like someone transforming into a ghost.

Like if someone long dead had finally relented the grip on life and left for a better world.

The Night's Queen was dead. A cry that was soon shouted and spoken from the cliffs of Harlaw to the deserts of Dorne and the docks of Oldtown. Acclamations mounted to the heavens and people commenced to dance and cheer forgetting all dignity.

The Long Night was over.


	103. The Last Battle

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Braavos, the Royal Fleet or the winter storms.

X59: Well, Massey is the comical event of Westeros (grin). Daenerys has learnt and is going to learn several lessons. More will be detailed in further chapters.

Good guess, but no. This time, we return to the Narrow Sea...

raw666: Hold because with the losses they have taken against the Crow's Eye, they can't afford right now to go on their way. They do not have the prestige, the influence or the military strength anymore.

Paul: Many Red Priests were already on the road to different cities or living temporarily elsewhere, making travels, visiting other temples...as for the responsibility, not really. It was more to illustrate how bad casualties had been that a virtual unknown was put in command.

And yeah, Massey is going to profit a lot from this popularity.

The Bolton inheritance...I will study your request.

That prisoners are captured and wounded in doing so doesn't really mean they were willing to surrender. Just that their captors refrained to kill them all on the battlefield.

Wargs, giants and everything the wildlings had seemed very impressive at first glance, but remember it was their entire remaining people, not just the warriors. Which meant that when they died (and they did) they were no reinforcements, no hope to have babies, nothing. The Others committed a true genocide Beyond-the-Wall...

Tango Charlie: Thanks!

yesboss21: Yeah...another chapter that will come soon is Yi-Ti. And magic is of course here to stay...

skipper 1337: No, Dany is not going the way of Aegon the Conqueror...in a way she has already done this part of the job!

Ha! Ha! Yes GRRM is pretty twisted. And slow to publish his works.

Thanks for the support!

thepkrgmc: So pessimistic...don't worry, the Westerosi are going to find solutions to remedy to that.

TheMyThink: No, Daenerys has far more urgent things to do than bullying the surviving lords with a giant lizard...

 **The Last Battle**

 **The Night Ends Part I**

" _They have lost their dragons? Too bad...for them_." Anonymous Braavosi, 301AC.

" _WE SAIL FOR THE VALE_!" Battle-cry of the Grand Fleet, 301AC.

" _If you have to kill Braavosi, you kill them to the last and rapidly...because if you don't, the rest of their cursed city is going to come after you, and it won't be pretty to see_." Anonymous Stepstones pirate, speaking from experience, 322AC.

" _For Braavos. Accept no surrender_." Acting-Sealord Dakrys, 301AC.

The Battle of the Titan had been the worst disaster encountered by Braavos since its foundation. A third of the military forces defending the city had perished. The arsenal of Braavos, pride of the City, had been half-submerged by the terrifying shockwave of the Titan's Fall. The fleets which had reigned over the known seas were now reduced to wrecks and dispersed formations all over the Narrow and the Summer Seas. Admirals renowned for their naval tactical skills had sunk with their flagships, trying in vain to stop a merciless enemy. Its political leadership had been decapitated. In spite of the precautions taken before the battle, thousands of Braavosi civilians had died in the freezing waters, trapped in their own houses or fighting rear-guard actions against lone flying wights having dispersed from the principal host.

If a new assault of the Others had started against the Bastard Daughter of Valyria, it would have carried the day. The Titan was gone, the fortifications were short of everything save courage: manpower, supplies, ammunition had reached their bottom limits in a single engagement. But the new nightmarish offensive never came. With a kraken's corpse and the fallen Titan blocking the entrance of the natural harbour, no doubt the Night's Queen or the Other commander in charge of this front had been confident Braavos would be knocked out of the conflict for years, perhaps decades. Largely enough time to finish the Westerosi resistance formed by the Last Alliance before turning east to the Free Cities bordering the east of the Narrow Sea. The Sunset Kingdoms were the primary target. Braavos and the rest of Essos could wait their turn and despair for their future extermination.

This was missing one of the essential components of the Braavosi minds. Braavos had been entirely founded by escaped slaves, not by the dragonlords of the Freehold. One of the rare things its population could take for granted were the liberty of each and every citizen residing behind the Titan. Now this sacred right had been challenged.

In the Braavosi public opinion, the Others had just declared they wanted to enslave Braavos, a slavery lying in ice and the embrace of cold death, far worse than every torture the Valyrians of Old had ever imagined. There was no way the Braavosi were going to flee again before tyrants and True Evil. This time they were going to stand and fight to the bitter end.

Sealord Fregar had perished in the last instants of the battle, but what would have been in other nations a crippling blow was not enough to slow down one more day the people of the Sea City. Former First Sword Dakrys was named to the post of Acting-Sealord until proper elections could be held, and the reconstructions efforts began at an impressive speed.

The Others wanted to destroy Braavos. Very well, said its citizens. But if the battle was to be fought to the last man or White Walker, the Braavosi were not going to wait quietly for their end. And just because the Arsenal was severely damaged did not mean the ship builders were out of options and alternatives. In an unprecedented move thorough history, tens of thousands volunteers flocked to the banners, men and women, young and old. Ancient houses belonging to noble families were gifted to repair ships and establish temporary smallest arsenals. From the debris and the materials left in the sundered quarters, dispersed shipyards were built. Hundreds of men worked night and day to shred the kraken's corpse and save what they could of the revered Titan (whose head is deposed at the centre of the rotunda in front of the Iron Bank today). Several sellsword companies whose founding point had been negotiated in the northernmost of the Free Cities raced back to avenge it in one of the darkest hours of humanity. Rage burnt in the hearts of the Braavosi, and vengeance against the Enemy was for thousands now their only reason to live, having lost friends and families.

Squadrons that had been left in patrol in the Narrow Sea were called back by all means at the Sealord's disposition. Sometimes it would take months or years, but the survivors of Braavos would come back to help, certain as far as war-torn Yi-Ti and Asshai.

Of course if the Night's Queen had flown on Hellfrost again towards Braavos, the Essossi would certainly not have stood their ground. But as the time an infernal rhythm of work occurred in the ravaged Sea City, the White Walkers lost their ice dragons in the Vale, and soon all their abominable armies. The White Walkers died by the thousands at the Dragonfall and the Battle of the Last Alliance. With news arriving haphazardly and not coherently, the Braavosi had no means to know it, but the masters of the creatures that had nearly erased their homes from the maps were dying.

The Night was ending.

Braavos was far from its pre-war levels of economy and prosperity, but the extraordinary level of resources mobilisation had allowed to put back into service thirty light ships, supported by new ballista, scorpions and trebuchets. Defences were rebuilt, the city regained some of its former splendour, some of the new installations and housing being constructed further inland to avoid a similar disaster in the future (and marking for the first time a difference between the "Old Braavos" and the "New Braavos", Sea City versus coastal town). A tight corridor to leave the Bay was reopened, allowing to discharge some ships, though at a snail's pace.

Scouting efforts were made to assess the threat of the Others. The new attack of the Others did not come, and the highest officers having survived the cataclysm considered it bad news. It was the ship _Titan's Arrow_ which found it first.

An iceberg fleet.

The iceberg fleet, executioner of the Braavosi fleets in the Battle of the Shivering Sea, was still at anchor in Coldwater Bay. The ruins of the Coldwater settlements near it made obvious the fate of the local population, and there were sinister blue lights on the shores and the ice blocks, confirming not all the Others had landed to mount the Vale invasion. Not much could be asserted. Whether it was simple bad weather or awful sorcery, the Coldwater area was otherwise plunged into an ocean of darkness.

The _Titan's Arrow_ recognised the waters as best as it could, and then sailed back on the winds of the winter tempests. At Braavos, the news made the effect of a thunderstorm. Thousands of workers and soldiers, eager to pay back the abominations in carnage and despair, wanted to attack immediately and without quarter.

More reasonable voices objected. Not because they had suddenly developed a new fondness for the Others and their nightmarish creations, but because they lacked the means to do so. Attacking an anchored enemy was always a dangerous enterprise, and this tactical principle had been recognised decades before any clues of the White Walkers was given.

Attacking Coldwater Bay, without any major warship, without any knowledge of the ice dragons positions would be pure suicide. The light ships rebuilt were not fit to go one-on-one against a sellsail armada, there was no way it could inflict significant damage on this unconventional fleet. Never mind winning.

These protestations were quickly silenced when Admiral Davos Seaworth and his war fleet emerged from the fog and the rain like the ghosts ships of the legends.

The Storm Fleet had answered the call of King Stannis to move north and battle the Others on the seas as best as they could. Of course, given the unreliability of the ravens, the time needed for a messenger to go from an army camp to a fleet harbour, the bad weather and the time needed to put a fleet into a position, these orders were out-of-date even as thousands of men tried desperately to accomplish them. It was discovered fortnights after by the Storm Fleet captains that their new orders were to participate in the transport of Targaryen forces from Pentos to the Vale (an order that was definitely drenching in irony). But as no bird or mortal human had been able to enter in contact with the fleet, the Stormlanders ignored all of the desperate situation of the Vale and the need for more armies to come and fight on land.

The ships were battered endlessly by storms and rains qualifying for the name of deluge in their search for the much redoubtable Other fleet. Of the forty ships, only thirty-five had managed to reach Braavos due to the excellent skills of their crew.

Braavos had the location of the Others fleet; the sailors of King Stannis had the weight to punch a breakthrough in the iceberg and give a chance of victory. It could destroy all the means of escape of the White Walkers. It could force a decisive battle humanity had a chance to win.

There was a little problem however: the war galleys were in no condition at present to fight such a battle. More was needed to discourage the Braavosi from taking their revenge. The path into the harbour was now partially open, and the Storm galleys were able slowly to enter the Bay one by one and were dispersed on the new improvised shipyards.

In four days, the Braavosi accomplished the next best thing to a miracle: the thirty-five ships of Admiral Seaworth were repaired, all the losses in their crew were reconstituted, their stocks of dwindling supplies filled again. Some legends pretends to this day that sometimes the engineers of the Braavosi armada did not so much repair as they dismembered and rebuilt an entire ship in this interval of time. For the first and last time in Braavosi, a foreign fleet was authorised to carry the purple sails of their City in battle, proof of the symbol the Braavosi attacked to this miraculous arrival.

Thirty-five war galleys of Westeros, smaller than the pre-War of Eight Kings Royal Fleet, but formidable nonetheless, armed and crewed by the best naval veterans left on this world. Their escort was constituted of forty-two lighter ships and five merchant transports. Four of the latter were full of Braavosi sea dancers with blood in their eyes. The last transport was carrying the remaining stocks of modified wildfire. Acting-Sealord Dakrys asked and received the honour of mounting aboard the _Fury Reborn_ for the battle to come.

The Others in the mean time had received by magical means the destruction their cause had been dealt with at the Battle of the Last Alliance. For the last two hundred Others, it was time to sail away and save what they could. Which was not much. No more crab, kraken, wyverns or dragons. One fell sorcerer, five thousands human corpses which had seen better days and some White Walkers lone warriors were all what was left of a force having shaken the human world. But unaware of the treat coming from them, these remnants of the Second Long Night disengaged their ice vessels from Coldwater Bay and started to sail away.

A primal cry mounted from the human warships when the Others fleet came into sight. This time, it was not the Shivering Sea. The weather was calm, with only a slight snow to limit long-range visibility. This time, humanity was launching the battle on its own terms and not to defend a realm of men. The Vale may be already gone for all they knew, but the sailors were determined to avenge the Long Night's victims and destroy their tormentors.

In the preparations for the battle, one of the lieutenants serving under Admiral Seaworth (and whose name was unfortunately never really confirmed, several scores of men saying they had been the ones) asked a familiar question.

"Do we use the usual battle-cry, Admiral?"

The war cry of 'Stannis King!' had become a legend on its own right by that point.

"No. Today we avenge the Vale." Answered the Master of Ships.

And thus "WE SAIL FOR THE VALE!" resonated over the grey waves, as the icebergs and the warships entered mutual slaughter range.

The Others had positioned themselves for a short and violent battle, hoping to use the fearsome ice capacities of their lone sorcerer and their icebergs great size to break through and escape towards the North.

Their wishes were granted on that day. One by one, the transports carrying thousands of Braavosi crash-landed on the iceberg, and the massacre began. The Others and their wights for the first time saw how unpleasant it was to be overwhelmed at sea, a point which often resulted in their skin being shredded by a harpoon...and somehow surviving. Braavosi wanted their opponents to suffer and had had very limited supplies of dragonglass (so limited in fact certain engineers developed the first diving machines at that occasion to recover dragonglass weapons lying at the bottom of the Braavos harbour).

There was no surrender, no mercy and no cease in the hostilities. Iceberg by iceberg, the Braavosi rolled over wight and White Walker resistance, followed quickly by the Stormlanders who had their own share of vengeance to accomplish.

The sorcerer tried to intervene, but his intervention was short-lived when the fifth transport rammed into the main iceberg and detonated all its wildfire cargo. The violet explosion was monumental...and provoked a confusion so total in the surviving Others they never recovered before their deaths came.

The battle was far from over. Encircled, deprived of any guidance, the Others became individual hunters, trying to slay the maximum number of warriors before escaping. The _Fury Reborn_ and about one-third of the ships involved in the battle were the target of an enemy assault. The flagship of the Storm fleet would lose one third of its complement, Acting-Sealord Dakrys died arms in hands, and for a moment the sailors thought a particular fearsome White Walker had managed to kill Admiral Seaworth by throwing him into the sea.

Unfortunately for the abomination, the Admiral who had devastated the Golden Company in the Sea of Dorne was far from the first green warrior come, and mere seconds later emerged in a geyser to grip a rower and impale the White Walker with it from behind. The surviving sailors, amazed by this act of awesome bravery, regained courage and pulverised the last Others.

The darkness dissipated over the battlefield, and while the clouds remained grey and threatening, the first lights of the sun could be seen, a reddish light over the horizon.

Multiple reports of the witnesses having participated in this action would reveal this battle had been fought one day after the Battle of the Last Alliance, thus making it the last large-scale confrontation opposing White Walkers and humans in the Second Long Night.

Famous particularity, the Battle of the Coldwater, also known as the Last Battle, the Revenge of Braavos, the Iceberg Purge and scores of other titles, is one of the rare battles besides the Battle of the Last Alliance having achieved the feat to have monuments on several kingdoms commemorating the heroes. At White Harbor, a small iron galley replica was built on the orders of Lord Wyman Manderly with hundreds of dead heroes names built on the hull.

On the ruins of Coldwater Keep, Lady Kellia Coldwater built a simple altar, and a flame of remembrance was lightened with orders that the flame was never to be extinguished, as it represented mankind's defiance against the darkness. Over time, it had become a sort of rite for recruits of different Orders to come and lighten a branch tree before marching north and manning the Walls against a possible return of the Great Enemy.

At Braavos, several stone walls were raised and the name of all the participants graved on them. Rumour was the materials were reforged from the Fallen Titan were neither confirmed nor denied.

But the most renowned is of course the Davos Monument in Cape Wrath. There stand the statue of Grand Admiral Davos Seaworth, Lord of Cape Wrath, Master of the Narrow Sea, Master of Ships, perched atop a thirty-feet column. As was the will of Queen Shireen, the statue of the legendary admiral is surrounded by forty iron galley statues, with five painted differently for the rest to account for the unfortunate sailors who fell prey to the violence of the winter storms.

Detail that has fascinated the historians to no end from the moment it was remarked, the gaze of the Admiral's statue is said to point straight in direction of the representation of King Stannis at Storm's End. But perhaps it is only a coincidence...


	104. Let the World Burn

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't won Yi-Ti or the Far East of Essos.

 **Author's note** : Sorry for last week, but my health didn't allow me to write the chapter in a timely fashion. Chapter resumes as usual from now.

X59: Yeah, humanity is going to learn a lot of lessons from this war. Some will be good, others will be less impressive. As for Davos, I had this statue in mind for a very long time...

raw666: Thanks for the support!

Paul: Yes, the Houses which surrendered to Daenerys have a lot of explaining to do...on the other hand their liege lords will understand that when the master of a dragon demands your surrender, you obey. Else you receive the Harrenhal treatment.

Braavos was knocked out of the war for all the time of the invasion in the Vale. It's hardly insignificant. Glad you liked the names and the monuments built to commemorate the victory.

The initial population of the Shield Islands has been pretty much reduced to those who were intended to be sold into slavery, I think. Many of the Essossi nations will be quite happy to repatriate them...it involves screwing with Ironborn-aligned slavers after all. But not everyone will come back, and it will take a long time before the damage of the war is ended.

Guest: The statues were built in the post-war era of course. Though some will be built long after all the protagonists are dead.

Tango Charlie: The short answer is that Yi-Ti has been united for a long time, and apart from a few raids from the north has been largely unspoiled by war. As a result, they have far larger densities of population than Westeros...and it translates in their armies numbers. They are also less reliant on the nobility to recruit, sometimes officers were perfectly content to muster levies in mass. Of course, the casualties which followed were pretty bad...

yesboss21: Seriously, I did not choose to see the war in Eastern Essos like that...

thepkrgmc: Yes, the alliance was joined at last on the seas...

HeroHearth: 'The End' is going to take several chapters...

BillyBard: It's a bid ironic yes...Jon Snow is still recognised as one of the leading commanders in the War for the Dawn, which is far from nothing. Jon Snow's future is going to be interesting...he got away alive because he's good with a sword, and he had Longclaw to slay Others and Ghost to shatter those he was unable to beat.

wawo20: Yep, Davos is an interesting character and easily likeable...

 **Let the World Burn**

 **Tales of the Long Night Part IV**

" _Because all the courage and the honour have failed us. All of you have dark pasts and done dark deeds to come here today. We are exactly the army this world deserves. Let it burn. LET IT BURN!_ " A Yi-Tish doomsayer, 301AC.

" _The one who will wields the Fang of the Night approaches...born as the Long Night arises...no man will be able to kill him...his duel with the Burning one will shatter the night..._ " Ancient prophecy judged farcical and incomplete, origin unknown.

" _History is in normally written by the victors...in the Empire of Yi-Ti it was written by the rare survivors._ " Prince Rickon 'the Wandering Wolf' Stark, 321AC.

" _We are ten thousand...they are ten millions. The solution that my powerful mind suggest is simple: for each one of ours they kill, we must bring down ten thousand. I know it's hard to think about killing so few opponents, but I have faith you will all do your duty..._ " General Yu Fei 'the Buffoon', 301AC.

" _One more victory like this, and we will go back alone to Yin_." General Lan Mu 'the Blue Dragoness' to General Sun San 'the Bloody Flower', 301AC.

While the battles of the Vale decided the fate of Westeros, another was raging far beyond the Dothraki Sea and the smoking ruins of Yunkai. The Shai'tans had suffered a reverse at Asshai, but losing tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of their own had not slowed down the pace of their offensive against the Yi-Tish and the rest of their human enemies.

By fire and ashes, more abominations stormed out of the Grey Waste and rushed to engage the human warriors. The rare scouts suicidal enough to approach the area where once Five Forts had stood described it as a sea of flames, coming to consume everything. The Battle of Nan Hi had been a reverse of no importance. Now the Shai'tans had decided to rush west before bifurcating again south, avoiding the major defences erected by General Guo Zhong. In the ravaged campaigns of the Empire, these news brought further panic where a semblance of order had managed to survive.

Doom Prophets rose, claiming the end of times was upon all. General Lan Mu and General Sun Bin had to abandon their own campaigns to meet this new thrust. The two generals proved to be as implacable with the Yi-Tish subjects as they were to the Shai'tans. Any soldier able to wield a sword who refused the call to arms was immediately executed. Women were recruited by the thousands when before the very traditions would have forbidden it. Villages were abandoned in all haste and razed to deny the flame entities reinforcements. Bandits and raiders were impaled on pikes still alive on endless avenues to show what happened to the traitors. Six small-sized armies that had taken cause for the deceased Orange or Yellow God-Emperors were destroyed to the last man, their heads cut and thrown to the rebellious towns and fortresses supporting them. It was no exaggeration to say the humans armies, embittered now by years of warfare were now ready to commit atrocities that would have been unthinkable prior to this dark era. The alternative to victory was pure and simple extermination...and Sun Bin the Strategist was now an eunuch in command of an implacable and logical machine of war. No sacrifice was too great to save the Empire. Millions of Yi-Tish had already died, what were hundreds of thousands more?

At the same time, General Yu Fei raided the Shai'tans rear, cutting them one by one in a bloody battle of attrition. Every Shai'tan who fell now was one less that the Yi-Tish and their allies of circumstance would have to fight at the final battle.

In the north, the Jogos Nhai massive army divided into a thousand smaller forces, forcing the monsters to tighten the ranks. After a first incendiary barrage thrown by Shai'tan sorcerers, Jhatar Lhaena had decided to avoid giving the flame monsters the kind of targets they so gratefully welcomed and destroyed. In small groups, the life on the steppes of the tribal horsemen guaranteed the fight was more in their favour, especially as their opponents had not an unlimited number of beings able to conjure fire balls with a flick of their hands.

These repulsive and bloody measures slowed down the progression of the Shai'tan armies. But slowing down the enemy would not save Yi-Ti. Acting in a methodical and ruthless manner, the fire beings advanced, building strange structures in an haphazard pattern around the devastated plains. Built like columns, these construction seemed to amplify the powers of the Shai'tans and decrease the ones wielded by the human sorcerers. Moreover, the earth convulsed around them, spreading lava and flames, covering the ground in ashes and simply making the place a death ground for the next decades.

After the raiders of Yu Fei the Buffoon destroyed two, all these positions were massively reinforced, slowing down a bit more the south-western progression...unfortunately it wasn't enough. Unless something changed massively, the Shai'tans were on the verge of entering a series of three provinces that were neither defensible nor easily reinforced. And after that? The first jungles of the South, which were under...new management. Azure legions were busy there exterminating the beasts and the abominations Cao Chai had unleashed in this area during his personal quest of power. Letting the Shai'tans enter this theatre was an enticing prospect...as much as the assurances of a torturer before a long session in the dungeons. A new strategy had to be planned, because the current one wasn't working on the timetable Yi-Ti had.

General Yu Fei's operation was the one that was chosen after many hours of debate. During days and nights (though the difference in the ashes spread by the Shai'tans was sometimes difficult to notice), Yi-Tish skirmishers had observed the constructions of several structures inside the enemy-held city of Tai Pei. Once nicknamed the jewel of the Northern provinces, this ancient fortress was now a cursed place, with thousands of Shai'tans mounting guard. Too defended for raiders, yes, but against an entire army? No. Much like the White Walkers in Westeros, the Shai'tans were never seen by any living creature adopt an interest for defensive positions, and the walls of Tai Pei that could have been easily restored and built back to form a formidable obstacle stayed in the state their burning masters had transformed them.

The attack of Yu Fei thankfully caught the Shai'tans completely unaware, and twelve thousand men equipped with ice wines venom on their swords faced half that many flaming beings. It didn't end well for the latter. Tai Pei was reconquerred by humanity, no less than four gigantic columns were brought down in a single afternoon, and there was an indication the men of the Buffoon had arrived just in time to stop the premises of a portal-type ritual. The specifics were beyond the wisdom and the knowledge of any mortal, but its denial eased the moral of every man and woman considerably. Yu Fei saluted his troops perched on the still intact roof of a long deceased God Emperor's son palace, and send a vanguard southwards to see the reaction of the Shai'tans main army.

The reaction to this battle overwhelmed all expectations. All the Shai'tans answered. Not just the main army, small detachment, extermination parties or even the most sinister ones transforming humans in...flaming slaves or whatever the sorcery did to them. All the Shai'tans. By hundreds of thousands, the immense masses of the burning ones were now racing to Tai Pei, ignoring everything from the fate of several ambushes to the outcome of scores of major campaigns. It was so unexpected many commanders had to drink several times water to verify they were not hallucinating. They were not. Whatever was in construction, buried under or any significant event in the past had happened at Tai Pei, it was enough for the flame abominations to consider humanity culling a second preoccupation.

For the soldiers of Yu Fei, it was the feeling of a trap closing with jaws of steel. This mission had been judged highly risky, which given their general infamous tendency to elaborate over-complicated strategies, meant a very good chance to die. But as rivers of fire all converged on their position, this time the odds were not insane. This was just death incarnate.

Some of the fastest troopers were ordered to try a breakout and inform the other army leaders. In the mean time, Yu Fei and the ten thousand men having survived the first clash made their best to make the city a nightmare for the Shai'tans. Contrary to one might think, it did not involve repairing the walls or piling rubble in the gaps to delay the Great Enemy of the East a small moment. The gaps in the fortifications were too wide, too widespread, too important. And there was simply not enough time, not with no engineering specialists in the ranks. Therefore what Yu Fei did was create a labyrinth in the ruins of Tai Pei. More houses and palaces were dismantled to change a destroyed city into something escaping the logic of humans and non-humans alike. Some avenues were blocked. One in three were not. On top of some fountains ice wines were prepared in evidence, almost for the sole purpose of making the burning enemy doubt. Thousands of traps were prepared. Structures were entirely ready to collapse at the General's order. And the pieces of the Shai'tans monuments were dispersed thorough the whole city, making any hope of reconstituting the original work a daunting challenge.

The Shai'tans failed to understand the joke. Screaming millions of imprecations that the Yi-Tish had no interpreter to translate (but every soldier could take wild guesses on their meaning), a gigantic assault was immediately mounted in all haste, the burning beings not bothering on coordination or waiting half of their numbers to be in position or even in view.

What followed was a slaughter. Rarely having fought in urban environments Yi-Tish forces (once a city or a fortress was breached there were generally so much damage done the defenders generally retreated or were already dead), the Shai'tans discovered their competences on this specific warfare skill were abysmal. The rapport of strength in the first assault alone was close to fifty-to-one, and it still failed to carry the day. Everywhere the Yi-Tish ambushed and tore apart their enemies, sometimes vaporising entire portions of Tai Pei to inflict more damage. In the first day of engagement, it was estimated Yu Fei had lost close to half his men...for the price of close to forty thousand Shai'tans. Fuelled by an incendiary rage, the burning sorcerers bombarded magically and conventionally the battlefield. Tai Pei screamed. Tai Pei burned. But at the entities and monsters consternations, the end of such terror attacks saw the humans reappear on the battlefield like ghosts, mocking the efficiency of such methods by their simple survival. The first day succeeded to another. And then another. In spite of being close to half a million Shai'tans concentrated on the assault by that point, the Others of the Far East didn't achieve to eradicate the resistance. And on the eve of the seventh day, what was predictable happened.

On the north and the south, hundreds of thousands troops were signalled. Humanity reinforcements had arrived. The human resistance of Tai Pei was mostly gone by that point. General Yu Fei and his entire cadre of officers were gone, and of the original ten thousand, less than two hundred and thirty elite soldiers were still alive. But they had held, and over a hundred thousand Shai'tans were no more, plus they had forced the Enemy attention to concentrate on them, not what was coming from outside on the vast plains.

Northwards was assembled the core force of the Jogos Nhai, a pure cavalry force half a million strong in numbers. From the south-west the battalions of Lan Mu the Blue Dragoness and Sun Bin the Strategist were coming at their best speed, adding close to twenty thousand horse and sixty thousand infantry. From the south-east were the rest of the Yi-Ti offensive forces: Wai Liu the Assassin Prince, Sun San the Bloody Flower and Guo Zhong the Cheater leading one hundred and sixty thousand men to the greatest fight of their lives. Eastwards about twelve thousand Dothraki and several hundred sellsword remnant companies had been mustered, although the historians are generally stuck to explain what fortune had brought them to this gigantic battle.

When every living and flame soldiers came into view, a shocked moment of stupor echoed. Had there been ever such numbers brought to a single battle in the last thousand years? The scale of the forces in presence were literally defying imagination. Assuming humans had had the gaze of eagles, the best watchers would have been unable to see a thing but cohorts, regiments and waves after waves of troops marching to war.

The Great Battle had finally come. With the burning and quasi-destroyed city of Tai Pei in the distance to mark the tragedy.

Millions of orders were screamed in the murdered morning where nothing but a pale shadow of the sun could be seen in all these ashes. And the explosion of violence commenced.

The Jogos Nhai and the Dothraki were the first to enter the final slaughter. With the experience of warriors having practised all their life this dance of death, the horsemen rushed on the attack hurling a cloud of arrows so dense it could be qualified of rain before retreating for a new attack. It wasn't as good as in normal circumstances. The Shai'tans had the means to retaliate, be it sorcerers or flaming bows, and did not have any reluctance to use them. Plus the abominations ranks were in their large majority dismounted and fully armoured. At full gallop and in a gigantic horse formation, the deaths of any horse and men riding upon it were unavoidably going to cause chaos. And at each attack, there were a lot of men going down. Especially the Dothraki. The dwellers of the grass fields in Western Essos had learnt to cover their bodies to avoid being burnt by the ash, but no miracle of any divinity had intervened to give them armour. The Jogos Nhai fared better, as they were more numerous and better protected (principally in looted Yi-Tish armours, but armoured nonetheless) but their host was ravaged by burning projectiles of blasts of pure flame magic.

The approach of the Yi-Ti legions was far more direct and brutal. Pushing millions cries of vengeance, the descendants of the Great Empire of the Dawn slammed into the Shai'tans with a ferocity such the monsters took steps back in fear. The initial charge crushed the lines, shattered thousands, trampled regiments. Humans and non-humans flew in the air, projected by hellish forces out of the reality. The sky was dark of millions of arrows. Every soldier who fell was murdered by an enemy, though whether it was a vestige of honour or hate was unknown. The air was thickening with the odour of blood. The ground was only ashes, mud and blood. The screams of the dying mounted by hundreds of thousands. Awful birds of preys descended on the corpses to feast.

There was no great strategy or masterful tactics to be applied. Often an officer saw a flank to be exploited, rallied the horsemen and the infantry around him for a new charge. Sometimes it was to form a new wall of shields or order a moment for the men to catch a break and find some water supplies in this burning hell. It went without saying that on this field where hundreds of souls departed for a hopefully less nightmarish surroundings, living was reduced to raw luck and running quickly when you faced too many opponents. Heroes disappeared without a trace when hundreds of Shai'tans rallied. Officers were carbonised. Those trying to inspire their subordinates were quite usually the first to die.

Most reports agree Sun Bin the Strategist was the first of the five Great Heroes left who fell on this day, trying to bring down a colossal flaming entity leading a thousand more abominations. After what appeared an eternity, Guo Zhong the Cheater was cut down, all the soldiers he had won the loyalty in the last years gone, fighting alone on foot against ten thousand enemies. On any battlefield these losses would have been mourned for long days, but such was the magnitude of the massacre and the devastation these news went mostly ignored.

Humans and Shai'tans brought everything in the battle, and an incredible slaughter was occurring. Everything which entered the battlefield in peak form was thrown out bloodied and battered at best, mutilated and dead at worst. Slowly but surely, the great and mighty armies were utterly ravaged, reduced to a pitiful shadow of their pre-battle strength. The humans were pressing on, and the Shai'tans were more and more pushed back to Tai Pei, with countless of their best fighters being trampled by human sandals.

Victory was near...but the flames of the East had one more card to play before the final defeat. An inferno was lightened in the middle of Tai Pei's destroyed housing...and from the middle of the fires came out a titan of flames and ashes. The first clue the Jogos Nhai forces had of its presence was a sword that could be possibly be not wielded by any mortal shredding their ranks as it was launched like a throwing axe. In mere moments, the first signs of victory turned to cinders. The nomadic tribes were brutally hammered and forced to retreat temporarily.

Then the Shai'tan...entity turned its attention to the Yi-Tish. General Wai Liu led the charge with thousands of men, the Fang of the Night in his sword hand, and managed to survive long enough to strike two lethal blows which sent the summon back to the hell where it belonged. Wai Liu, the Prince Who Was Promised, did not survive this titanic duel. Nor did most of his soldiers who had accompanied him in this last daring charge. But it was enough.

Deprived of this last weapon, the Shai'tans broke ranks and tried to flee, with not a great measure of success. The cavalry and infantry that had emerged victorious pursued them, in some cases for days or moons. Vengeance was a dish really to be savoured.

But as the first rays of the sun appeared on the skies, the senior commanders who were left on the burn plains knew very little joy. With no figure to lead them, their elite armies for all purposes no longer existing and the Empire crumbling everywhere, the future of Yi-Ti and the East was not going to be one of unity...


	105. Divided We Leave

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Azor Ahai, the North, the dragons and the Last Alliance.

 **Author's note** : Don't know if all the reviews are there this week...the site may have some defaults, don't worry I will answer the comments of everyone as soon as everything is gone back to normal.

X59: The Shai'tans are beaten, their survivors are fleeing eastwards as fast as they can. There will be remnants to pursue and destroy for a lot of years however.

Nix: Big endeavour...I will have to look into it, it's not the kind of thing I make in a second or two.

Paul: I've fully recovered, thanks.

Merryweather left the capital before the enemy armies encircled the capital, under the flimsy pretext of mustering reinforcements in the Reach (otherwise he would have died, his corpulence and his courage would have made sure of that). Cersei and Tyrion let him go, it was not like it was a big loss...

You're right about Brienne...though she might keep fighting for Renly's ghost, it's always difficult to know the different of possibilities of 'what if?'.

Many of the Mander survivors have been given settlements and lands to inhabit north-east of Highgarden. Given the horrors they fled, not that many are in a hurry to return to the site of horror which was their home.

thepkrgmc: Maybe not thousands, but there is going to be far more successor states in Yi-Ti than there are in Westeros in the direct aftermath of the Long Night.

 **Divided We Leave**

 **The Night Ends Part II**

" _All magic comes with a price. We of the Free Folk remember this_." Queen Val Stark, 302AC.

" _The cat, pardon the Night's Queen is dead. The mice can...talk to divide the cheese_." Ser Justin Massey, 301AC.

" _Dragons are useful, I will grant you that. But not when you're not sure to have them on your side..._ " Lord Anders Yronwood, 301AC.

" _We tried bending the knee to a Targaryen before, your Majesty. The result was following the whims of an Unworthy, a Cruel and a Mad one. We're not ready anymore to swear our allegiance to a line of cruel and petty kings._ " Lord Jason Mallister, 301AC.

" _There is still an enemy who must be vanquished. He lives in the Land of Always Winter.._." Queen Daenerys Targaryen, 301AC.

" _The war is not over...so let's go kill the last Others!_ " Lord Jon 'Greatjon' Umber, 301AC.

" _Massey trying to woo Asha Greyjoy? No, it will never work, let's be serious men.._." Nymeria Sand, 301AC.

According to certain religious records of the Battle of the Last Alliance, the surviving soldiers pursued the Others remnants during seven days and seven nights before letting the rare abominations left alive limp back to the Lands of Always Winter, harried all the way by the tenacious and brave warriors of Westeros.

More credible witnesses wrote or told little to support this version of events. In fact, they showed this propaganda as a complete and utter non-sense. Truth to say, the army of the Last Alliance pursued the defeated White Walkers one hour or two, and the forces involved in exploiting the rout were mostly Essossi or Vale forces that had fought relatively few turn of hourglasses in this storm of violence.

The majority of the men who had been present at the start of the carnage, Westerners, Reachers, Stormlanders, Dornish, Riverlanders and Northerners, had neither the strength, the motivation nor the means to accomplish more than laying down their weapons and sigh in relief. The battle had been a close and murderous affair, beyond the experience of any war fought before the War of the Eight Kings. Victory had been seriously in doubt before the arrival of the reinforcements and the providential discovery of Azor Ahai, with champion after champion making the ultimate sacrifice to hold the tide and devastate the Other formations. The ice blades of the Enemy had shown no quarter and while generally the Other weapons caused no disease or infection, hundreds of soldiers were now crippled or mentally shivering for the rest of their lives. The healers and maesters behind the lines had been overwhelmed by the thousands of casualties coming at them. Too often, healing stopped for one patient as the soldier was past salvation and another needed the healer's help. The renewal of the sun was a positive sign, but sunlight didn't magically heal the wounds or resurrected the dying afterwards.

Past the moment of triumph, many men and women stopped all efforts to prosecute the war and mourned the losses they had suffered. About one in three of the army were dead or wounded, and the White Walkers had made little difference between knights, lords, kings, men-at-arms or smallfolk levied in emergency. All were lying dead east of the Bloody Gate, on a battlefield so disputed the snow was flowing red on uncountable leagues. This had been the decisive battle and a victory. It had also been one of the worst slaughters ever witnessed, and it had come after three years of near-continuous warfare.

Several songs would be sung on that day, and while those created several years later would talk of the great victory and the end of the Long Night, immediately once the bows and the clashes of steel ceased their death songs the voices of the bards and other singers were a hymn to the dead. _Remember the Heroes_ , _Tears of the Gate_ and _Broken Swords_ are just three examples of the ambiance reigning after the last battle.

Taking care of the corpses took an entire fortnight. Despite the defeat administered to the forces of Winter, no one felt really safe leaving tens of thousands corpses there on the ground, but the snow, the ice and the hard terrain made burials the next best thing to impossible. On the advice of Ser Wylis Manderly and Lord Edmure Tully, every fallen had his identity recorded on large books when it was possible, before delivering their mortal remains to the flames. It was not a perfect method (given the list of casualties and the cause of their demises, hundreds dead were nameless with no means to put a name on their bones) but these documents would form the basis of the Black Columns, the memorial stones built on the very site of the battle a decade later, listing the dead of the Battle of the Last Alliance and the honour they brought to their homes by fighting an enemy bent on wiping out all living things.

The only three exceptions were the three men having taken Lightbringer before the arrival of Dragonslayer Ygritte. For their heroic actions, King Stannis Baratheon, Red Priest Thoros of Myr and the unnamed third warrior were buried in the shadow of the Mountains of the Moon, each at the place they had fallen. To this day, the tombs are regularly recovered of flowers and their top in form of cross are built in a sun-reflective material commanded specifically from Myr. At night, the tombs are always surrounded by circle of torches. It is the tradition that the tombs are never to be plunged in the darkness again, as the three heroes died for the Dawn and so must remain the Light until the end of times.

These moments of paying the deceased the respects they were due and the periods mourning unfortunately didn't last. There was a war to end, forces to regroup, fortresses to relieve, an Enemy to wipe out...plus frontiers and land rights to discuss.

It was the last point that brought the poison back in the discussions. While the Night's Queen was alive and rampaging thorough the Vale, every faction could agree that defeating the ice abominations was the absolute priority. But now the Ice Queen was dead, and the divisions were coming back. Justin Massey chose this moment to throw his famous quote about cat, mice and cheese, and several historians looking back with hindsight agreed it was an appropriate metaphor. Without an enemy, the old problems were resurfacing like blooming flowers.

Amongst all the claims, the most threatening of all was undoubtedly the one spoken by Queen Daenerys Targaryen. Ser Donnel Swann, who represented the interests of the Storm Kingdom with Lord Anders Yronwood, Lord Garlan Tyrell and Ser Justin Massey as senior commanders, and King Robb Stark with his respective generals Lord Umber and Lord Blackwood were not happy to hear that the daughter of King Aerys II still considered her claims on the former Seven Kingdoms to be valid. The influential Westerosi men and women included in the talks disagreed with this point of view. Lord Edmure Tully had not enjoyed hearing from his bannersmen how many wildfire caches the Mad King had hidden under King's Landing and provoked the final conflagration in the Battle of the Four Armies. Several Houses, beginning with Lord Jason Mallister, had had one of their relatives burnt up by the Targaryen dynasty when they had the pyromaniac monarch at their head. The sheer amount of destruction the last Targaryen Princess had created in Essos was not encouraging either. The less said about the final destruction of Harrenhal and the fatal duel of the Kingslayer at Riverrun, the better.

When the Queen of Meereen argued she had a dragon under her command, the will to use it and the love of her people, having apparently had a return of flame after the resurrection of her bonded dragon, the lords pointed that the Others had had flying reptiles too, and everyone knew how this particular story had ended.

Apart from the Reach, which was at best neutral on the idea (the knights that had not been involved in fighting Dreadwing during the Doom of Kings that is), the different regions of a once-united kingdom firmly banded together for the last time, declaring that no matter their differences, they did not wish to bend the knee to the dragons again. The Northerners remembered all too well the burnings of Lord Rickard and his Heir. The soldiers of Dorne had perished by the thousands when they fought in pointless wars for more or less competent dragon monarchs. The Riverlands, the Stormlands, the Ironborn...all had their own grudges against Queen Daenerys or her ancestors. Sometimes both. The Mother of Dragons stormed out of the tent in anger, and the fact Ser Wendel Manderly spread a proclamation among the Crownlands and Riverlands nobles having bent the knee to Queen Daenerys that they would be pardoned without conditions if they returned to King Robb's rule was a bitter blow to any hope of Targaryen return to power.

The second issue, and not the least, was exactly what to do with the Vale. At no moment the East had been under the control of the Kingdom of the North or the Storm Kingdom, and now it was a ravaged realm. Moreover, the Royce governance, despite the legendary stance of Lord Yohn, was now significantly weakened. The new rapport of force was favouring other Noble Houses which had not been in the middle of the Other massive offensive like House Redfort or House Belmore. Lord Andar Royce had not the influence and the military power to lead the Vale anymore. That said, the Vale lords and knights were not ready to swear their allegiance elsewhere. The desperate resistance and the improvised alliance with the Mountain clansmen had confirmed the independence sparks. The Vale was ready to accept help to rebuild, but the fighters of the East would not do it on their knees.

The solution found at the end of the day was to name Azor Ahai Ygritte the new Queen of the Vale. Without an Arryn of the main line alive, there was no real blood claimant for the Falcon Throne. The Targaryen emissaries tried to put a claim to the kingdom, but it was firmly and decisively stopped in the tracks. Many awards and recompenses had been promised to the one who would slay the dragons and the Night's Queen. And the red-haired Free Folk young woman was not enjoying levels of adoration and popularity not seen in a millennia. House Royce of the Gates of the Moon were confirmed in their lordship, and Lord Andar Royce was to be become the Lord of Runestone (and take the honorific title of First Protector once again by the same occasion).

Others decisions were taken far more rapidly. As the Night's Watch was virtually extinguished, the Kings and lords agreed to the general dissolution of the old Order and the release of the Black Brothers from their vows (a decision that pleased the new Queen Ygritte quickly as her new Consort was one). New fortifications would be erected as soon as the Gift was re-conquered. A new Order, tentatively recruited from all Westerosi armies and called the Order of the Dawn, was to be created when the Wall would be liberated.

In the end, only two men chose to continue the fight under the black banner: Black Brothers Edd 'the Dolorous' Tollett and Pypar. As the two war heroes to bear the arms with the Ancient and the new Order, their names soon entered the legend and would make bolstering the numbers far quicker than expected.

Because the war wasn't over. The last battles had broken the Others' main armies, hopefully for centuries or millennia, but immense forests, plains and tundra once belonging to the realms of men were suffering the awful effects of lone White Walkers atrocities. Nearly the entire Northern force was going to march back home for the final counter-attack, minus a small battalion King Robb left to his half-brother Jon Snow. Hundreds of Riverlands veterans, along with a sizeable Reach and Stormlands force under Ser Justin Massey would accompany them (charming Lady Asha Greyjoy appeared to have been a powerful motivator by the way). The first pages of the _Life and Times of Ser Justin Massey_ were written in the break between the two campaigns, according to the persistent rumours (some straight from the mouth of the principal interested).

Numerous Southerners went back home. A new Queen was to be crowned at Storm's End, and there was much rebuilding to do before winter ended and the sky came back to a blue colour. Ser Donnel Swann and Lord Devan Seaworth would bring back Blackfyre to King Stannis' daughter (at the consternation of many Targaryen supporters).

King Robb Stark and Ser Donnel Swann confirmed before the departure that the frontiers tacitly acknowledged between the King in the North and King Stannis would be recognised until a new Great Council was to be summoned. The eventual fate of King's Landing was a grey area, as were the lands under the control of the Hound Brotherhood, but the Blackwater Rush would serve as the new frontier for the moment.

A new reconquest was starting in the Vale too. The news of the recent victories spread like dragonfire in the hills and the mountains, and from their solid citadels and snowy peaks the humans descended once again in the valleys to enact their revenge on the Great Enemy. Lightbringer pulverised the remnants of ice monsters, Commander Jon Snow, Ser Grenn of the newly created House Aurochs and the Tollett banners chased the White Walkers from the heart of the Vale. Further north, House Belmore sallied out of Strongsong and fell on the rear of wights groups which had not managed to arrive for the great battle.

These momentous and welcome victories were however overshadowed by the fate of Drogon. The black dragon had seemed regaining partially its former vitality, power, black dragonfire...and appetite (a not so minor fact as larders and livestock resources weren't exactly vast in the East or anywhere in the vicinity at that moment). For the duration of the Battle of the Last Alliance, no one showed an inclination to demand an explanation on the really miraculous revival. In hindsight, everyone should have. From the first exploits of Melisandre of Asshai to the abominations unleashed by Euron Greyjoy, it had become evident magic always came with a price. And for the resurrection of a magical being like a dragon, said price was not going to be cheap. There was nothing wrong with the aggressive behaviour shown by Drogon towards non-Targaryen humans, no...but as days passed his fire grew increasingly colder. From midnight black with crimson-red reflects, the scales of the gigantic lizard went night and dark blue. The fire breath was soon pretty much a weapon neither cold nor warm. Progressively, the fire dragon known as Drogon turned into one of its ice brethren. The energy of the dying ice dragon had been partially subdued by the ritual, but now the magic was free to go rampant on the dragon veins. Queen Daenerys Targaryen, bonded to Drogon, was exhibiting several similar characteristics. The shining silver of her hair was turning pale. Her left eye was now not violet anymore but a mix of violet and blue. At least the Mother of Dragons was lucky. The transformation of the rare wizards having participated in the rituals was far more rapid, transforming them into Others look-alike, a fate which condemned them a summary execution by the weapons of the Essossi sellswords charged of their protection.

The last surviving sibling of the deceased Crown Prince Rhaegar tried in a last measure to touch Lightbringer once more, but it was a failure, the sword surrounding itself of a fire corona that only slowed down the transformation effects.

Time was running out for the Essossi Queen, forcing her to fly in all haste to Dragonstone and let her main advisors know of her personal situation. Ice dragons couldn't survive for long in the South when the Night ended; already temperatures south of the Vale were lowering, and while it was still winter, it was far more pleasant than the weather conditions of the Long Night.

The most remembered order of the Mother of Dragons was to name her advisor Missandei Regent of the Targaryen Empire, until one heiress of Targaryen blood could claim the throne for herself. As the daughters of Princess Arianne Martell, who had been acknowledged as the best claims, were still babes, all signs pointed to a long regency. Frontiers were fixed, with the emphasis that no matter what happened, slavery had to be abolished forever. And then Drogon and his rider departed for the icy and frozen desolation of winter, intending to guard the jail of the ice monsters as long as possible, raiding White Walkers surviving formations here and there. The warriors waiting for their deliverance at Last Hearth were the last persons to see her disappear in the grey skies.

To say the Northern lords were not happy at being placed before the done deed was an understatement. While it was limited to rumours at that point, the fact humans could transform into Others was very lowly whispered in talks around bonfires. Already, secret meeting between the leading commanders of the Last Alliance had decided not to send any sizeable group in the Lands of Always Winter to guard the Great Other's prison.

Sending a dragon and its rider was a terrible risk...there was simply no way to be sure beast and rider wouldn't be back soon to lead new Other armies to battle. Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened in the next decades, but it didn't stop the North to send missives to certain Volantene influential figures.

Nonetheless the conflict was now one-sided in humanity's favour. And as the year 301 after the conquest neared end to let the place to year 302, massive efforts of consolidation and rebuilding progressed. The Long Night was over, and now it was going to be time to decide the foundations of a new era...


	106. Disputed Cities

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Myr, Qohor, Lys and Tyrosh.

X59: Yes, the cycle of summer and winter, ice and fire is not over. The feelings of unity are going to sleep, the personal interests are returning...this is Westeros and the Long Night was the big conflict, but it was far from the last.

Paul: It's rather simple: the first-born child of Myranda will inherit Gulltown, while the second-born will have the Eyrie and take his (or her) maiden's name.

Yes, Ygritte is now Queen of the Vale. Will watch again the chapter to ensure Ii haven't made any mistakes. There will be new Houses which will rise shortly or in years, as a consequence of the Long Night.

The lands around Harrenhal are going to be divided between cadet sons of the Riverlands and members of House Frey. Without the great fortress, there are plenty of villages and small holdfasts to build in this very fertile area without angering the claimants.

Eduard Kassel: Yes, Edd and Pypar are going to lead the new Night's Watch for a time. The Dolorous always said he was going to be the last man standing...

WHCnelson: Glad you enjoy it.

Tango Charlie: All actions have consequences...and Daenerys was given an impossible choice: letting her dragon die and save her life, but at the price of losing her dragon-bond and the very core of her being, or go to the north and abandon her empire. Magic is not a weapon easy or free to wield...did you really think resurrection was going to happen without backlash? Beric Dondarrion in canon can give you his impression if you want...

But yes, it's Aegon VI descendants who are going to continue the Targaryen line. Or is it the Blackfyre (grin)?

Sage of Wind Dragons: For the moment the Targaryen Empire has a weak central authority, that's true, but it controls officially a territory awfully big, and if it manages to become a tenth as efficient as the Old Freehold, well the neighbours are going to shake in fear.

thepkrgmc: Yes, hopefully...however this is Westeros so everything is possible concerning bad things...

reality deviant: Thanks a lot!

 **Disputed Cities**

 **The Essos Apocalypse Part V**

" _The person I fear above all others is my wife_." Salladhor Saan, 303AC.

" _The Disputed Lands are well-named_." Anonymous Westerosi, 302AC.

" _At least while they fought each other, they didn't bother us..._ " Ser Justin Massey, 304AC.

" _Remember: always betray your allies when you can get away with it. Not before_." Myrish magister, 302AC.

" _The Goat comes_." Message written in blood on a demonic underground altar of Qohor, 301AC.

As long as every Essossi could remember, there had been a sort of equilibrium since the Doom of Valyria destroyed the Freehold and the Nine Free Cities progressively took control of the Western part of the Essos continent. Dothraki came, were bribed, and left. Myr, Tyrosh, Lys quarrelled for the most ridiculous decisions. Norvos had its bearded priests. Volantis elected at least two members of the Elephant Party during their Triarchs Elections. Braavos stood against slavery and ruled the waves. Qohor had strong walls and practised the most pernicious sorceries.

The period known as the Essossi Apocalypse, fixed by the maesters and other word keepers between 299AC and 302AC, destroyed many of the foundations which had been taken for granted. A new order was rising...and all signs pointed it would not have many common points with the old one.

With all these wars, massacres and destruction of the pre-existing order, the only conflict not out of the norms was the sixty-fourth official clash between Lys, Myr and Tyrosh. At the base of it was a new trade dispute in the Stepstones, with Tyrosh taxing Lysene ships more than the treaties and the customs dictated. On the verge of war, both Free Cities tried to make Myr their ally, but the defection of the Golden Company to fight on the side of Aegon VI changed the strategic tapestry significantly. Myr had been weakened before the first battle was fought, and the alliance with Tyrosh had for the moment a different senior partner than the Myrish had imagined.

By 300AC, already several small-sized engagements had taken place, all put on the back of 'independent captains', each side promising severe punishments for these treaty breaches. War was considered to be imminent, although no one in the confidence of the Archon of Tyrosh or the magisters doubted it had already started. The defeat the Targaryen forces administered to the tentative coalition next to Lake Opal was the last straw to the very fragile order subsisting in the theatre. Angry to have been stemmed on the eastern front and under large pressure at home to do something, the generals of Lys mounted a large offensive on land and sea, declaring war against Myr and Tyrosh.

In two moons, the Lysene army defeated six enemy armies in the Disputed Lands, capturing the three major cities of Numidys, Massadys and Napalys. On the seas, the Lysene admiral Utio Talys administered a severe defeat to the Tyroshi fleet, profiting from the enriching experience his sailors had learnt during the battle against the Iron Fleet remnants.

Lys had the advantage when the year ended, but this did not last. Myr and Tyrosh finally counter-attacked, and their mobilisation sent thousands of sellswords of diverse origins in the melee. The carnage wrought in the Dothraki Sea, in Westeros and in other fronts of the Long Night had put tens of thousands warriors without a cause to serve, and there were plenty enough to come to the Disputed Lands and fight.

The Myrish sellsword armies retook Numidys and Massadys in 301AC, and by that point the turn of the conflict was clearly stacked against Lys. The Lysene navy was defeated in the Battle of the Onyx Strait, expulsing them quasi-totally from all their holdings in the Stepstones. On the continent, the superiority of the Myrish-Tyroshi alliance went from two-to-one to four-to-one, and the garrisons of the cities and fortresses surrendered or went away to the enemy.

In this desperate hour, Lys' defeated posture produced the alliance's break between the other two Daughters of Valyria. On the verge of victory, the Archon of Tyrosh Druxos decided it was time for his City to dominate the region, and struck the Myrish forces in the back. Or so it was believed. In reality, Myr spies had long suspected their 'ally' would try to betray them; it was not like it was a novelty in their quarrelsome history. What had been planned to be a thunderbolt crushing the Myrish forces on the various battlefields resulted in a bloody stalemate, with thousands of sellswords and sellsails dying in the supposed 'surprise attacks'.

Tyrosh had gained the upper hand on the Stepstones, but was losing ground in the Disputed Lands. Two raids destined to raid Myrish-owned secondary harbours failed, and the war went on, swallowing hundreds of lives, scores of warships and merchants hulls, plus the non-negligible equivalent of tens of thousands dragons. The Tyroshi were unable to concentrate and eliminate the last Lysene presence of the continent, as the Myrish focused their efforts on them. By the time the Night's Queen died and peace progressively returned to Westeros, the fighting between the Three Daughters still went on, but the treasurers were growing impatient and anxious: the bottom of the coin reserves was visible, the population appreciated moderately having company recruiters talk to them six times per day as they lived their lives, and all this agitation plus the destruction of Slaver's Bay commerce had dramatically impacted the trade. Slaves in particular were a 'commodity' suffering a very deep crisis, without Volantis, Meereen, Yunkai, Astapor and Pentos available anymore.

The return of Salladhor Saan in 302AC proved the turning point. Having received a very large fortune for his participation in many naval operations of the Storm kingdom, the self-style 'Prince of the Narrow Sea' was now a very rich sellsail, and his fleet was now the last hope of Lys to avoid a complete humiliation. In exchange of several favours making him one of the most influential men of his home city (not to mention the construction of the huge 'Parrot Palace' in the core of Lys), Saan led his men against the Tyroshi fleet, and inflicted them a large defeat in the Battle of the Misty Stone.

This was enough for the Archon and councillors, although an impartial observer would tell the aborted slave rebellion discovered in the entrails of their city certainly accelerated the peace process. With Lys throwing their last forces to regain what they had lost and Myr launching new offensives, bolstered by Westerosi and Essossi veterans finding themselves without a job, the rapport of force was unfavourable. Myr could trade extremely valuable marvels of engineering in these troubled times for renewed manpower. With a terrible winter behind them (for the most part) the Kingdoms emerging were eager for glass, machinery pieces and architects expertise. Tyrosh, less-advanced, had less to propose, their most remembered contribution to the Great Council of Duskendale in 303AC being their 'invitation' of Prince Trystane Martell and Princess Myrcella Baratheon. Tyroshi emissaries were sent to Myr and Lys, requesting humbly the start of peace negotiations. The demands were accepted.

The treaty of Kairys, signed in 303AC after several fortnights of bitter debate and arguing, saw Myr emerging triumphant...in a fashion. As Queen Cassana Baratheon would remark three decades later on the onset of a new war in the Disputed Lands, it was more a point of losing less than their enemies than a true victory in all and due forms. All the coffers of the three Free Cities were empty, their sellswords armies had been reduced by more than half since the onset of hostilities. The slave trade, life-blood of their economy, had been ruthlessly demolished by Queen Daenerys Targaryen. The very survival of the Essossi hierarchy was at stake...but thanks to their divisions the Three Daughters were unable to take any action against a foreign nation. Myr took about four-tenths of the Disputed Lands, and gained a significant advantage considering some included were the most fertile and important in tax revenue. Lys was repulsed to the southern coast, Tyrosh to the west. There was no total victory anywhere, the Stepstones being divided for the thousandth time between Tyrosh and Lys.

Northwards in the hinterlands, the Essossi were less preoccupied by war, after the defeat of Khal Vrasso and his Dothraki, and more about magic and the new rapport of force. Qohor and Norvos had been allied for a long time, in order to preserve the upper waters of the Rhoyne from Volantene encroachment. There had also been the constant passages of Dothraki khalasars along their lands which had to be paid with presents and slaves.

Now everything had changed. The barbarians of the East were disintegrating, bled white by the Mother of Dragons as shock troops, slaughtered by their own companions in the multiple power struggles plaguing the Dothraki Sea or discovering how beloved they were when thousands of their supposed 'inferiors' rebelled and massacred them in the middle of the night. Volantis had been conquered by the new Targaryen Empire, its power at an all-time low. For the first time in centuries, Qohor could expand eastwards without problem.

There was a 'but' however. The succession of sacrifices made when the Dothraki were slaughtered and the renewal of magic spread strange phenomena within the city of the Black Goat, none of them which could be described as very amusing. Shadows appeared randomly in the streets, scaring nobles, priests and smallfolk alike. Sinister bleats resonated at every hour of the night and day. The first days were not taken seriously by the ruling caste of Qohor. Nor by the inhabitants themselves to be honest. Qohor was perhaps not Asshai, but it had seen in the past so many mysterious acts this latest emergence was just sufficient to raise a few eyebrows.

But as the days passed and the powers of the Long Night grew near, the shadows and the noises unable to be explained amplified. Inhabitants barricaded themselves inside their houses after corpses were found in the meagre day's light completely drained of blood. The rumours of bloody goat-men haunting the streets of the city were in every mind. The bleats were heard so many times some people went mad, forcing the authorities to stop all sacrifices and temples attendance. Guardsmen truly feared going out for their patrols, and the minimum of soldiers necessary for them increased as every night one or two disappeared without the slightest explanation. Like they had been grabbed by shadows and consumed by it.

Quite understandably, a certain level of emigration manifested itself at Qohor. Creation of several eastern outposts suddenly became very popular in the upper and lower classes of the City, with the numbers required being reached in less than half a moon. Norvoshi, Volantene and other free foreigners residing inside the walls, lacking this good excuse to make an escape, sold their residences or loaned them and departed for an undetermined period, until something looking like normalcy remained.

Qohor asked for the help of Norvos in this matter, but the bearded nobility refused, under the motive this treaty had been asked to battle men, not the horrors having decided to visit Qohor in this dark era. This abandonment was not a coincidence. Three nights before, several Norvoshi merchants had been missing and their corpses had been quickly found in different back-alleys. In several pieces. Norvos politics dictated not to enchain their future to the fate of Qohor. Especially when said city was unable to ensure their own citizens remained safe and secure inside their magnificent walls.

The break of the decades-old alliance did not change anything in Qohor. More men, women and children fled outside the walls, authorised or not. Where two missing persons had been considered a bad night (or day) before, the Qohorik were murdered by the scores. By that point, there wasn't much hesitation to the thought the Black Goat of Qohor (or at least priests of the religion) was behind the darkness oppressing the thousands of men, women and children. There had been too many witnesses to the bleats and the goat-men attacks. The reality could not be denied.

Something had to be done.

By edict, not only the sacrifices were forbidden, the religion of the Black Goat itself followed. Tutelar divinity of the city or not, no man wanted to see his house and his family sacrificed in service of a murderous and uncaring goat-abomination. Several priests tried to contest this decision weapon in hands. They were all massacred by their former servants and followers. A good part of the black clergy turned itself against each other, shedding torrents of blood. Listening only to their courage, two thousand guardsmen and their noble commanders descended in the basements of the city, firmly intending to slay the monstrosities threatening their lives and souls. According to renegade Priests tortured beforehand, it was there the shadows hid while the day lasted.

No one knows exactly what happened in these tunnels and blasphemous temples built to the glory of forgotten demons. Of the two thousand fighters, one hundred and eighty-two survived, but these men were trapped in a room by devilish mechanisms, singled out from the rest of the strike force and attacked by the dreaded goat-shadows. One hundred and eighty-two out of four hundred were all the survivors of this terrible trial.

The fate of the remaining one thousand and six hundred men was even more depressing. All of them were dead...maybe. The soldiers descending in the catacombs and dark corridors of Qohor discovered pieces ravaged by an unimaginable violence, with deformed goat-creatures, men, distorted traitor cultists and many things that should by all rights never exist in this world hacked to death. In the last room was found a gigantic altar of black marble, surrounded by a circle of dead men. The valiant guardsmen had made their last stand there.

But the sacrifice had not been in vain. Whatever happened in the depths of the city, it banished the evil from this place. The morning after, the sun rose in the east and the Qohorik understood that for them the Long Night was over. No bleats, awful laughs or killing shadows remerged to murder those having the temerity to walk their way in the streets.

The cult of the Black Goat never recovered from this period of terror and bloodbath. Among the two thousand dead heroes had been several notable cousins of the ruling council, and the masters of Qohor didn't forget. The demons were to stay in their grave, thank you very much (which did not mean that other disgusting practises didn't remain in the city of sorcerers). In fact, several Lysene divinities of love did not wait to replace the worship of the Black Goat. Itinerant priests followed, and while Qohor barred the gates to any R'hllorite or former slave of the Targaryen Empire, the void was filled by exiled Volantene, Braavosi, Lorathi, Tyroshi and Myrish. But if the violence was over in this part of Essos, there were other Free Cities waiting for a chance to burn...


	107. To the Last

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Others, the Wall, the North and the Vale.

X59: Yep, the Black Goat of Qohor was a local threat...although if it had not been checked, it could have grown in far more worrying proportions. And caused tens of thousands more casualties...

raw666: Thanks for the compliments!

Paul: Oh the inhabitants of the Free Cities are always doing some fighting. But in last chapter it degenerated into outright war.

Victarion's body was divided into several parts, burnt, and the ashes sent to different locations where no water could be found. Thus he would never sleep with the Drowned God (that's the theory at least).

As for Tyrosh, Trystane and Myrcella, yes they have still a place to play in this story. The Game of Thrones never ends... (evil laughter)

yesboss21: Nothing much happened in Ibben. Well, nothing major. Neither the Shai'tans nor the Others had marked them as primary objectives (or second-rate objectives for that matter). It will allow them to expand a bit in the aftermath of the Long Night.

As for the Shrouded Lord, the Rhoyne and everything between Yi Ti and Western Essos, I've described (most) of the extra-ordinary events. There's a limit I can put before things take an end-of-the-world scenario for humanity...

thepkrgmc: Yes...and since the war has ravaged several comparisons, even small casualties are becoming more important in the grand scheme of things. As the levels of manpower decreases, the importance of the survivors is slowly but surely increasing.

 **To the Last**

 **The Night Ends Part III**

" _I'm coming back, Others_!" Lord Jon 'Greatjon' Umber, 302AC.

" _The White Walkers have a lot of things to pay for. The true retribution begins...now_!" Lord Daryn Hornwood, 302AC.

" _To the last. Kill every Other you see until there are no more_." Anonymous Northerner, 302AC.

" _The Long Night ended when my brother retook the Wall. But it is not the end of the Others. The Night's Queen is dead, but the Long War continues_." Princess Arya Stark, 310AC.

The liberation of the lands lost to the White Walkers was no easy affair. True, with the Night's Queen dead and the sizeable armies of darkness defeated, the grand counter-attack against the Others could begin.

But one had only to look at the immense amount of territory ravaged by the Great Enemy to know things weren't that simple. While the fury of the winter winds was progressively dying down, the reality was that the North and the Vale, the two theatres where the new offensives would be launched, were covered in snow and ice, a type of terrain where wights and White Walkers held a significant advantage. In the cold, a human normally constituted needs more food than usual, a warm place to sleep and rest and liquids not freezing to drench his thirst. Not to mention furs and other winter clothes, adequate weapons or correct maps of the places they were supposed to march on, because with the earth unrecognisable at the best of times under this white mantle, it was really easy to lose hundreds of men with a simple short-cut. Ser Justin Massey could attest this fact vigorously.

Logistics had been rather simple in the days the Others concentrated their dead hordes by the tens of thousands to attack the biggest fortresses on their way to the south. Hunting scores of groups through the wilderness was a far more complex affair. Moreover, they were fewer men available for this daunting task than there had been three or four years ago. Carnage after carnage had taken their toll, and several lords and powerful knights were finally waking up to the fact the never-ending conflict had starved and damaged the divided Seven Kingdoms of Westeros beyond recognition.

As the Northerners and their vassals had to walk the long distance between the Bloody Gate and Moat Cailin before engaging any enemy, it was to no one's surprise that the hunting of White Walkers began in the Vale.

The initial attacks after the Battle of the Last Alliance made great progress, making a majority of Essossi captains and untested officers believe this phase of the war would be a free victory. Wights corpses were piled in huge hills and put aflame. Creatures of ice and snow were shattered by the dragonglass. Lightbringer opening the way in Queen Ygritte's hand, the main valleys and the heart of the Vale were rapidly back under human control. Destroying remnants after remnants of the Long Night forces, the Vale command under Prince Consort Jon Snow retook Ronnel's Pass and Heart's Home, leaving hundreds of men and women able to mourn their losses on the battlefield where they had been hammered and routed.

And then the outcome wasn't that roses and sunshine anymore.

The euphoric moments were well and truly over. The Vale had to be rebuilt, a long and difficult task judging uncountable holdfasts, forts, villages and settlements had been razed by the Others in their cold fury. Thousands of small and great men had to find the sustenance needed to survive the moons before the weather allowed any harvest. North of Heart's Home a long and tiring war was waiting to be fought. Despite the sallies from Strongsong of House Belmore, the White Walkers were far from exterminated. The discipline of the abominations had been broken, their ranks slaughtered and their wights burnt; but the survivors were now like lone wolves without a pack: extremely dangerous. The Others had lost; the issue was that they knew it, and nothing was more dangerous than a cornered animal which had nowhere to flee. Since Admiral Davos and the Braavosi had deprived the White Walkers of their only reliable means of escape, the majority of the Others still plaguing these lands decided to fight on to the last. Human corpses were not exactly scarce, and the upper parts of the high mountains, the cold was heartening for ice-born creatures.

In the dark woods, the caverns and the northern mountains of the northern Vale, the bitter war raged for the best part of the year 302AC. It was not a series of clashes terribly costly in lives compared to the monumental battles which had bloodied Westeros, but in ferocity and viciousness there was no difference. Every human wanted to kill the maximum of White Walkers, having lost family members or been witness to the abominations atrocities. Their enemies obviously disagreed, and rose from the dead more wights, hurling them in insane charges. In a mountainous landscape, these 'wight charges' caused heavy casualties due to the unstable ground, the ravines and the avalanches.

Legions of sinister and bloody tales were counted later as this bloody purge of the Others went on. According to some tales and legends, the echo in many mountains is still resonating of the screams and warcries of men and White Walkers fighting their last stands in these places far, far away from every sign of civilisation.

But in the end, the outcome of this campaign was never in doubt. Should the Others have been left alone two or three years, perhaps the ice warriors could have launched a new offensive to tear asunder the realms of men. It was not the case. The Westerosi and Essossi had suffered too much to allow their great enemies to recover and recoup their losses. Each White Walker falling and shattering in ice shards was not replaced. The last battle fought in the Vale was reported to have been fought roughly one hundred leagues north of Strongsong, on the third moon of 304AC. However the threat posed by the winter forces had long agonised and been recognised as such moons before.

Things went rather differently in the North. To begin with, the returning troops of King Robb Stark had to reach the battlefield, a fact which was often forgotten by the amateurs strategists discussing their inept strategies decades later around a good fire and plenty of wine. Considering the exhausted state of the army, it was no mere feat to reach Moat Cailin, and the frontlines were much further north than that.

The strategy established by the King in the North with the firm approbation of the Greatjon was not complicated. Past Moat Cailin, the army was going to divide into three unequal forces. The most powerful, with the majority of the heavy cavalry and half of the obsidian reserves, was going to go east to White Harbor under the command of Meera Reed and Ser Wylis Manderly. It was only the first step of course. The goals of this 'Eastern Army' were to relieve every holdfast between White Harbor and Karhold, plus the destruction of the Others bands roaming in the frozen plains.

The least powerful force was going west. With the planned withdrawal of the Reach detachment in an imminent future, it was King Robb's intention to finish the training of the levies mustered at Barrowton and send them to augment the garrison of Bear Island and Deepwood Motte. Just in case the Others dropped another army from the Lands of Always Winter on humanity's left flank. On the political side of events, a smaller group of warriors under Flint command was charged to bring Lady Dustin to Winterfell for her trial.

The third army in the meanwhile was to travel on the Kingsroad (what remained of it anyway, armies and winter had not been good for the road) and fight its way to the Wall, liberating Last Hearth and freeing the Mountain clans of their besiegers.

It was a long campaign, not because there were tens of thousands Others waiting to ambush everyone stupid to march northwards, but because of the strain every Northman in the army was under. A non-insignificant proportion of the veterans had been fighting since Queen Cersei Lannister denounced House Stark as traitors, and the exhaustion was arriving near the breaking point for the common man-at-arms. The mood was now to go home and find solace. Peace had been proved as an illusion in the last couple of years, but now that the sun had returned partially (it was still a freezing winter after all) the prospect of laying down the arms and settling in their homes had never been more enticing. And so the last campaign went on, mobile and rapid patrols moving aside the main armies to seek and hunt the Others still dirtying the North of their presence. When a large enough group of wights was watched, the army was mustered. Not that it happened often: only in two occasions the men on their way to Hornwood battled their way against that many dead thralls. The army in march to Winterfell faced no opposition of this strength.

Opposed to such reinforcements, the soldiers of the Night's Queen found their limits. The Northmen had by 302AC done a very thorough job of roasting everything which could be resurrected as a wight (with the White Walkers magic, it pretty much meant anything) and the ice spiders had returned to the hell where they had been born. This relatively fast war when visibility got better for mortal eyes proved a boon for the Northmen and a bane for the abominations.

The Others reinforcements from the grave were now numbering mere hundreds...when it wasn't scores or even lone skeletal wights. Without any cavalry or the sheer magical strikes having shattered the Wall and numerous great defensive positions, the White Walkers died. Unlike in the Vale on the other hand, escape was possible and many of the ice beings chose it when the disaster became all too evident to their maleficent blue eyes. The ruins of Widow's Watch were reconquerred and burnt of all devilish presence on the third moon of the year, allowing Lady Lyessa Flint and her sworn swords to build again the first structures which would in time be the new Flint household.

The freedom to move their last wights at their leisure did not mean a lot in the grand scheme of things. With a wight-power approaching the end, the efforts to attack and put every Northern battalion on the defensive didn't exist. And the forces having survived the Great Battle of the Wall, cut off from their liege and their friends, ultimately had the chance to counter-attack. From the tall and chilling Western Mountains, Lord Daryn Hornwood descended in fury and wrath, followed by hundreds of his own battle-hardened warriors and scores of ferocious clansmen. The _Wrath of the Moose_ is still a classic today in the North to celebrate this epic moment. Ser Helman Tallhart and Lord Robin Flint sallied from the woods of Karhold and scoured the countryside with an implacable accuracy which disturbed the Braavosi contingent accompanying them.

Combined with the advance of King Robb Stark's army on the road, the last White Walkers were forced to withdraw with all celerity. The King in the North had reached his home of Winterfell and had one had motive of satisfaction and one of regret to deliver to the denizens of the Lands of Always of Winter. Queen Val had birthed a healthy son named Edwyle four days before, but his father had not arrived in time to see the birth of his first child. It was far from the only son or daughter being born in the darkness of the Long Night's end of course. Amongst the prominent Noble Houses, Marianne Bolton had given birth to a daughter named Arranna, saving House Bolton from extinction after the death of Lord Roose at the Battle of the Last Alliance.

After five days of rest, the Northern army plus the allied formations began their last offensive, supplemented by new reinforcements from the Wolfswood and troops having bid their time in the Stark citadel. With fury, fire and dragonglass, the soldiers of King Robb hunted hundreds of wights and White Walkers, repulsing them northwards. What was left of the Others leadership decided to make a stand west of Last Hearth with close to a thousand wights. It was a slaughter, as the Greatjon slammed into their reeling ranks like an avalanche in his haste to liberate his home. Few White Walkers were present at the start of the battle (with rational estimations putting them at around two scores) and none lived to see its end. The three survivors of Last Hearth were reunited with their families, and the sacrifice of Hother Umber was fully realised and understood. Large pyres were lighted on to burn every corpse in the vicinity, and songs of victory were loudly screamed all day.

The Battle of Last Hearth was over, and while it was not the last skirmish fought in the North against White Walkers (in dark places some of the monsters would survive for moons and sometimes years) maesters often tend to define it as the last battle of the Long Night. One fortnight later, the living finally reached the breach the place where Castle Black had once stood. It was a rude shock: the Night's Queen and her legions had made sure there was nothing left of the headquarters, from the top of the elevator to the foundations. Ser Podrick Payne delivered formally in Lord Commander Tollett's hands the Black Book of the Night's Watch in front of the gigantic breach where Tyrion 'Dragonslayer' Lannister had perished. According to the legend, King Robb Stark fixed during long hours the Haunted Forest before turning away and never looking back. The scouring of the lands Beyond-the-Wall would wait for another day.

Promises were made and oaths recorded. Forts and men would be garrisoned to alert against a new offensive of the Great Enemy.

And with this last act the Long Night finally came to an end.


	108. The Smallfolk Uprising

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Reach, House Tyrell or the smallfolk.

X59: Thanks! The Northern forces indeed were truly tired and the chroniclers tried a bit to make the reconquest more romanced and glorious. It's not like it hasn't happened in our history in some conflicts...

Paul: Ah, sorry, I mistook Victarion's death for someone else. Sigh. I've killed so many characters I have problems remembering their exact demises. GRRM must be so proud...

The Lysene fleet was not entirely destroyed, no. But between the ships sunk or captured, the one in needs of repair and the ones which dispersed all over the Summer Sea, effectively it was gone in the wars over the Stepstones.

Yeah, 301AC has lived. Good morning 302AC!

Ygritte and Jon may not give Heart's Home to one of their own blood. While it sounds like a sound idea to boost your influence, the fact is a lot of titles and lands in the heart of the Vale have reverted to the Eyrie rule as minor knights were pulverised by the Others. At the limit they could consider one of their children marrying the new lord's heir.

The white book was not saved alas. There was a copy in Oldtown which was preserved, but it was not a fully updated one (last additions had to be in 291AC or 292AC). And since the Kingsguard has been annihilated and sunk in infamy, not many Westerosi care.

Thanks for the support, I tried very hard not to increase the casualty bills too much in the last chapters...

yesboss21: Ha! Ha! Ha! Will do my best...150 is still a huge number when I think about it.

Eduard Kassel: The Northern campaign was far less epic, more rapid and lacked big opponents unlike the offensives which preceded it. But you're right Ser Justin Massey is going to be delighted to embellish them.

Davos had first to return to Braavos, in order to repair battle damage. It's the reason he will not be mentioned before 303AC. Plus of course the weather is still capricious.

thepkrgmc: For the short-term, abandoned to the surviving White Walkers. The human lines of supplies are strained beyond what is acceptable. In the long term, there may be a resettling, but the fear the Others inspire is going to limit the immigration prospects for many decades. Plus huge garrisons will be needed because if an army of wights come out of the ground, the reinforcements will only see the men and women when they walk towards them as marching corpses...

 **The Smallfolk Uprising**

 **The Night Ends Part IV**

" _With all respects, my lord...this is a disaster!'Not necessarily to the Reach's advantage' is like saying the Sunset Sea is wet_!" Lord Bertram Appleton to Lord Willas Tyrell, 302AC.

" _Down with the Lords! Down with the Kings! Down with Tyranny!_ " Battle-Cry of the Smallfolk Uprising, 302AC.

" _Too bad I wasn't there. I'm sure I could have avoided all this unpleasantness_." Ser Justin Massey, 303AC.

The year of 302AC began with a long mourning for the new Storm Kingdom reigning over the South of the Westerosi continent. King Stannis Baratheon, cadet brother of King Robert Baratheon and last legitimate male heir of the Baratheon dynasty, had perished in battle against the White Walkers. The inhabitants of the Stormlands were as a result torn between sadness and celebration. Humanity had triumphed over the darkness of the Long Night, but the price had been heavy. Especially in lives and blood. "Let's pray we have never to face such a threat again" said Lord Richard Horpe in a conclusion of one of his most famous speeches when Lord Devan Seaworth delivered the sword Blackfyre in Queen Shireen hands.

With their monarch last stand at the Battle of the Last Alliance entering the legend, there was no question who was going to succeed him. Not that there would have been in any case. While Queen Margaery, now Queen Dowager, had not stayed long in the bed of her King, it had been enough to become pregnant. A fact Storm's End had heavily silenced the news of, in order to keep the Alliance functioning. The hopes of the Reach lords that the Rose Queen was to sire the future Storm King were cruelly disappointed however. The childbirth was difficult, requiring the combined intervention of several maesters and Red Priestess to provide magical and non-magical help. And after several hours of painful childbirth, the official revelation came in: Queen Margaery had given birth to a girl, who was named Anemone.

Queen Shireen elevation to the Storm throne was consequently unopposed, and with the young monarch conserving the senior councillors of her father, the Stormlands were going to keep the upper hand over their reluctant western bannersmen. Worse from a Faithful perspective, the religion of the Lord of the Light found itself comforted in their position as their selfless help of Queen Dowager Margaery spread and hundreds of smallfolk and merchants converted to R'hllor.

For Highgarden, this new situation was far less optimal. Many Reach lords and ladies having somehow survived the tumult of the bloody conflict had put their last hopes on Queen Margaery delivering a male heir, thereby restoring the Tyrell and their bannersmen influence. It was obviously not going to happen.

The meal was hard to swallow. At the start of the War of the Eight Kings, the Reach had been in the position one traditionally reserved for the kingmakers. Its harvests, groves and fisheries were feeding not only the tens of thousands mouths under their rule, but also part of the Westerlands, the Crownlands and the Stormlands. The debt the Iron Throne owed to the coffers of Highgarden had not been that massive, but unlike the Lannister one it had been consisting of vital supplies the capital couldn't survive without.

At Bitterbridge, an army greater than the pre-war forces of the North and the Riverlands combined had been mustered to fight for King Renly's cause. Cutting the food supplies to King's Landing from the South had unleashed starvation and misery to the Crownlands and King's Landing in particular. With the Starks allied to the Tullys fighting the Lannisters, one of the greatest armies ever assembled had only to march slowly to conquer Westeros, their supply chain allowing them to be fed virtually multiple campaigns.

Less than four years later, the painful truth was that this army and these resources were no longer available. The Arbor was in ruins. The Shield Islands had been burnt to the ground and defaced by horrifying acts of sorcery. Oldtown had been attacked and suffered minor damage. Highgarden had been attacked and suffered enormously from the Ironborn and Dreadwing. The mouth of the Mander was a spectacle of devastation and carnage. The Ironborn had behaved worse than Dothraki on their most bloodthirsty days, raping and murdering everything with two legs. Granaries and livestock had been looted, burnt and poisoned.

At first, the policy of blaming every pillage and destruction on the Ironborn had somewhat worked. The Doom of Kings had clarified the rapport of force, and the greatest concentration of Ironborn was well and truly dead. Thousands of volunteers, smallfolk and knights alike, departed to fight northwards. In the process these forces would end up fighting much, much dangerous opponents than they had been envisioned, and by the same occasion Houses Hightower and Tyrell got rid of the worst troublemakers protesting their rule. While the armies were fighting for humanity survival in the North and in the Vale, the South was busy rebuilding what they could.

Unfortunately, this period of relative peace didn't last years. The offensives of the Others died at the Bloody Gate...and suddenly there was no great enemy to proclaim a crusade against. For the lords who had survived to bend the knee against King Stannis Baratheon, an uncertain future came, one where no more enemies rushed in. The Kingdom in the North and the Trident, the Valemen and the Essossi? Allies of circumstances, veterans of countless battles. The Stormlands? Their new conqueror, and moreover far more popular in the lower classes of the cities and the countryside. The Dornish? Already subjugated by the Stormlords and their own internal disputes.

To sum-up, Lord Willas Tyrell and the great nobles having managed by competence or sheer dumb luck to emerge on top found themselves at peace. It was...inconvenient.

As the first battalions docked at Oldtown, the angry whisperings were already spreading by the thousands. Voices rose to ask how an idiot like Lord Mace Tyrell had been allowed to dictate the war strategy of the Reach all along. How a mad pirate like the Crow's Eye had been able to tear apart the Reach defences having very limited manpower in his terrifying shadow. How the Dornish had been able to walk at their leisure from Skyreach to Highgarden. How the Baratheon outnumbered forces had been able to score unlikely victories again and again when their Reach opponents drank the wine of defeat.

These questions were dangerous, and not only because they came from everywhere. Ser Donnel Swann, senior Stormlander left in charge after the death of his king at the Bloody Gate, had not been late in sending bards across the South to spread the victories of the Long Night. Thus at a time where smallfolk and highborn alike were fascinated by the selfless charges of Morrigen, Massey and Baratheon soldiers, the Reach men, women and children turned the head...and saw how badly their proud masters had erred. Lord Garlan Tyrell and the Hightower contingent had played important roles in the clashes against White Walkers, but nowhere enough to capture the imagination and the glory really needed.

To say there were other motives of non-satisfaction was not quite in the same category as saying Dorne was dry and covered by sand, but it went in the right direction. The ravages of the Ironborn, the predatory tactics of sellswords, the aggressive recruiting pitch of armies, the requisition of everything eatable and drinkable...the list was endless. Relatively wealthy merchants had been thrown half-dead on muddy pathways when everything they owned was confiscated. Smallfolk had watched powerlessly when their home, their only possession of note, was burnt down by their own masters.

The refugees thrown on the roads were counted in the thousands. Some had been welcomed in Oldtown. A few had profited from knights or lords more generous than the average and been able to find new homes. When the Storm garrisoning troops were in the vicinity, generally the materials or make-shift tents had been given (Storm soldiers beginning to follow the informal habit of their former sovereign and campaigning in very modest conditions).

But that left the overwhelming majority of the refugees without a roof over their heads. Granted, it was not that Houses Tyrell, Beesbury, Rowan, Cordwayner or Bridges did not want to put an end to these villages-sized waves in march along the Rose Road or one the lesser paths. But the funds and the supplies were stretched to the limit. Despite the war being over, the convoys the Reach merchants had to send to destroyed places in the Stormlands or the Northern Marches as price of their allegiance was not small.

Moreover, there were plenty of holdfasts and villages which were not cooperating, when they were not outright defying the orders coming from Highgarden. Abandoned by their lieges, who went to war and never come back, the smallfolk had had to handle their own affairs. Repulse the bandits' attacks. Find enough gold to buy the basic necessities of a farmer and enough warm clothes to last the coldest winter in centuries.

And then the liege came back from the war. In most of the cases, it was not the one who had departed in the end of 298AC to swear his sword to King Renly. Sometimes it was the eldest son where they had been one. But often, the eldest son had fallen somewhere between the Kingswood and the Neck. The duty would have fallen to the third son...if there had been one or if said person was not providing sustenance to the crows somewhere on the Field of Poison. Cousins and bastards who had not envisioned in their wildest dreams be second in line for a knighthood were suddenly propelled to the ownership of vast lands and considerable villages.

There were occasions where the new knight or lord rose to attention and managed to command the respect of his new subjects. Coming from a less privileged background and having suffered from the hardships of a long war along common men was a good starting point.

But there were also moments when it completely backfired. Like at the Arrowfort, seat of House Norridge, situated about mid-distance of a line between Goldengrove and Bitterbridge.

Lord Robert Norridge had never been acknowledged as a competent lord before the Great War, his most remarked action in the Reach politics being the marriage of his sister Elyn to Ser Luthor Tyrell. His death at the Field of Poison under the steel of an Ironborn axe had been almost unremarked in the chaos following this defeat. His successor, his second son Gunthor (his eldest son Mark having perished at Storm's End under Ser Loras Tyrell) did not profit from his title long, dying of illness at Seagard. Lord Robert's wife died in the first months of 301AC at the Arrowfort, leaving her castellan in charge of the place until the next Norridge arrived to claim it. The new lord happened to be Ser Lorimar Norridge, Lord Robert's nephew.

Lord Lorimar, as he had been confirmed by Lord Willas Tyrell, was a knight who would never had been confirmed in his lordship duties under normal circumstances. Several times Lorimar had been accused of rape and several atrocities on smallfolk, and had avoided the executioner only because his perfidious tongue was quick in sowing doubt and discord. And he never left many witnesses. Unfortunately, with hundreds if not thousands of highborn men lying dead on scores of battlefields, neither Highgarden nor their main bannersmen had a lot of leeway. Unless they wanted to let Storm's End choose the names of the lords of the Reach, a repulsive option to be sure.

When Lorimar Norridge arrived to the Arrowfort, it was to find it surrounded by an improvised town. The castellan had a good heart, and had allowed hundreds of refugees to build new houses in the shadow of the castle, multiplying the number of hands several times. If this arrangement had been allowed to stand, in time House Norridge would have been a very prosperous place once every food issue was solved.

Lord Lorimar saw the events in a different light. Declaring all the refugees were parasites draining the lifeblood of his lands, the new master of the Arrowfort declared the immediate expulsion of all the newcomers and the restitution of every supplies gifted by Castellan Owen Flowers. This order would have been a calamity, but then Lorimar proceeded to hang Owen Flowers on the charges of treason and try to rape a newlywed girl.

This mistake was the last Lorimar Norridge ever did. Twenty veteran men-at-arms had followed him to the Arrowfort, but it was a paltry number compared to hundreds of smallfolk in fury. There were plenty of deaths on each side, but when the dust settled, the Arrowfort was in ruins, and the head of Lord Lorimar Norridge was dancing on the edge of a pike.

The Smallfolk Uprising had begun, and with House Norridge died.

The first spark of the rebellion was truth to say completely ignored by Highgarden, Oldtown and all the great castles. Arrowfort was a third-rate moat, with an importance varying somewhere between tiny and ridiculous. The eyes of the powerful were rather fixed towards Highgarden, where Olenna 'the Queen of Thorns' had left naturally this world.

Ignored or not, the uprising spread. Screaming battle-screams and calling for the death of every lord and knight, smallfolk mustered by the thousands, emptying entire villages by the sheer power of their anger. The rare Tyrell taxpayers (detested profession since the dawn of times as everyone knows) who met their paths regretted it. Cavaliers returning homes were thrown in water ponds, bandits rallied to their cause or were raided in turn. Hundreds of travellers disappeared like they had never existed.

House Appleton and House Fossoway sent patrols to investigate these disappearances...not many came back to report. And when they did, it was to report dire information. A great uprising had formed, created by hundreds of refugees and the smallfolk of House Ball, Norridge, Roxton and Hastwyck. This crowd had taken the armouries of numerous knightly households, and had gained enough smiths to forge their own weapons anyway. And now they were marching southwards, straight to New Barrel. If it fell, the Rose Road would be cut in half and nothing would stop the bloodthirsty mob to ravage the undamaged lands south of it.

Fortunately, Lord Bertram Appleton recognised the danger. Freshly returned from his campaign at Barrowton, the Lord of Apple Hall rode to New Barrel with five hundred of his own cavalry, half of them archers. Along the way he was reinforced twice, first by one thousand five hundred foot sworn to House Ambrose, secondly by five hundred foot of House Pommingham. It was not tens of thousands elite soldiers, but it would have to do, and they were supplemented by one hundred archers of the green-apple Fossoway branch.

The smallfolk rebels had still the advantage in numbers, but it was not as crushing as before. Moreover, even the most bloodthirsty leader was not going to send women and children against armoured knights. Lord Bertram estimated that about eight or nine thousand opponents tried to storm New Barrel, trying to get inside the walls of the Fossoway fort by surprise. But this time the highborn cause was prepared and had plenty of veterans. These were soldiers who understood discipline, positioned their shields correctly and struck true. The revolted died by hundreds under the arrows, and then Lord Appleton led the sally, slaying them by the hundreds and dispersing the rest. By the time noon arrived on the next day, the butchery was still not over but the defeat already promised to be total.

Appleton, Fossoway and Pommingham were pursuing the rebels and tearing them apart. Over twelve thousands men, women and children were dead. Losses of the Tyrell bannersmen were insignificant.

In spite of this triumph, Lord Bertram and the reinforcements coming from Highgarden needed three more moons to finish the uprising. The region was devastated, with the pre-war population having been levied for the different wars and at the moment being finished by their own lords and masters.

For Lord Willas Tyrell, this massive rebellion by the lower classes of the Reach could not have arrived at a worst time. While the first real battle had killed the Smallfolk Uprising, his position as the second most important lord of the Storm Kingdom had been irreparably damaged. The results were not going to be waited long. The Great Council of Duskendale and the new relationships with House Redwyne and House Hightower were going to change a great deal the rapport of strength held by Highgarden...


	109. Oaths to Remember

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Reach, House Tyrell or the smallfolk.

X59: Olenna Tyrell born Redwyne died in the short interval of time between the first soldiers coming back home from the war and the beginning of the Smallfolk Uprising. Significant detail, she emitted doubts about giving Lorimar Norridge the lordship. Alas, there weren't any alternative options which did give less trouble politically, and so the succession was confirmed.

Had she lived, the elder Tyrell would have wanted to hang Norridge for threatening the already shaky rule of House Tyrell. But her old age finally caught up with her: she was one of the oldest ladies alive in the Seven Kingdoms by that point.

Paul: Owen Flowers might or not might have been a Norridge, but I don't think Lorimar was that interested in finding the truth. The kinslaying charge might not be that important compared to rest of the carnage which unfolded, but it is one the ephemeral Lord Norridge certainly had no qualms about.

Well, House Tyrell has already lost plenty in the course of this conflict. Their lord is dead, along with his youngest son and the post-war situation is seeing them completely at the mercy of Storm's End. The worst has been done, but the factions of the Stormlands are not going to be happy at the actions leading to the Smallfolk Uprising.

Massey has an indomitable ego. Nothing more to be said.

Ah, I had forgotten this point. Let's say he was an envoy, released by Stannis to give unpalatable terms of surrender. Yes Elyn's descendents are not going to go to their ancestral lands without a big, massive escort. Plus the holdings have been ravaged very thoroughly (for some reason the smallfolk really hated Lorimar), thus they will need a lot of gold if they want to repair their castle and recruit enough men to work in the fields.

Of course some of the rebel smallfolk survived. No matter how efficient and determined highborn leaders are, the reality is that the Reach is huge, there are lacking the tens of thousands soldiers they had when Renly was crowned (and those they have are steadily demobilised) and for a high lord any smallfolk is unrecognisable once they have dropped their weapons. There are dozens of families who are lying low, waiting for the storm and thunder of the post-uprising repression to die down. And in the long-term, they will provide the sparks to light on other rebellions...

thepkrgmc: Indeed...but Westeros has not a monopoly on that. One can argue it happens a lot in the world we live on.

raw666: Thanks! The rebellions failed, but unfortunately it is a given there will be others. There are some Reach lords who are competent and likeable, but all what is needed is one or two bad apples to launch an insurrection...

 **Oaths to Remember**

 **The Great Council of Duskendale Part I**

" _King Robb is deciding everything before Duskendale..._ " Anonymous Riverlander lord, 302AC.

" _Alas, triple alas I failed in my quest to conquer the heart of this terrifying Lady..._ " Ser Justin Massey, 303AC.

" _He talks too much_." Lady Asha Greyjoy, 303AC, when asked why she chose not to marry Ser Justin Massey.

" _When they were speaking about the Harrenhal curse, I didn't see it coming that way_." Ser Aenys Frey, 303AC.

" _Remember the Oath of Duskendale. When darkness rises again, head north and defend the realms of men_." Last words of an old Stormlander veteran to his son, 310AC.

Choosing a place for the Great Council had definitely not been an easy task for the lords and emissaries of Westeros and Essos. With the general concerns and offensive operations brought by the defeat of the Others, it had been already decided the meeting would not happen during the year 302AC. When one added the travel distances for each prestigious participant, late 303AC was the earliest date possible for every ruler. Which left a bit of time to discuss the sensitive choice of a location.

In far happier circumstances, King's Landing would have been the ideal choice. But the former capital of the Seven Kingdoms had burnt in an ocean of wildfire, and thus was no longer the solution. Lannisport and Gulltown were similarly excluded, given the heavy damage they had suffered during the last years.

Predictably, House Hightower soon proposed to host the talks at Oldtown. A storm of protestations echoed from the Dornish Marches to the frozen forests of the North. The rest of Westeros, beginning with the Crown of Storm's End, loudly objected to this transparent attempt at regaining power and influence. The western coast and thousands of nobles and smallfolk had largely benefitted from the Reach fleet organising and supplying the war effort, but House Baratheon and many of their old and new bannersmen saw with a very bad eye a possible return of the Lords of Oldtown at the top of the Game.

And anyway, Oldtown was hardly practical for Northerner delegates and Essossi emissaries. The lands and seas were still in a state of turmoil by the first days of 303AC as the winter waned and the first signs of spring were seen. Demanding half of the most powerful factions to travel across half the continent had little chance to happen. If a meeting had to happen at Oldtown, it would be one missing half of the factions. By the same logic, any location in the North was as a result impossible. The great city of House Hightower was far-away from many, but at least it had not feet of snow surrounding it.

There were knights who advised the Bloody Gate, for its powerful symbolic power as the site where Night ended. But while undoubtedly everyone recognised how important the place had just become in humanity's survival, hard reality forced to acknowledge many of the powerful Vale fortresses were not in a state worthy to welcome a council of merchants, never mind a Great Council. Plus all the food consummated in such a place had to come from somewhere, and with the Vale and the North making their best from 302AC to 304AC to feed everyone in their realms, raining meat, wine and fine delicacies would have been badly perceived by the lower classes of the population. The same could be easily affirmed for the Westerlands, though at least one attempt was made by Lord Addam Marbrand to host the talks at Casterly Rock.

Dorne had still plenty of skirmishers raiding and causing problems to the Dayne and Yronwood garrisons, disqualifying them instantly. The Riverlands and the Stormlands were better to welcome large delegations and hundreds of men and women, but both kingdoms were too much associated as the respective powerbases of the Kingdom of the North and the Trident and the Storm Kingdom.

With this reasoning only the Crownlands were left...and it meant the Great Council would take place at Duskendale.

Hosting the Great Council here posed still several issues, especially for King Robb Stark. The Lordship of Duskendale had been granted over two years ago to Artos Umber, cadet son of Jon 'Greatjon' Umber, but sadly this was no longer the case. In her attempts to rally the Crownlands to the red dragon's banner, the now disappeared Queen Daenerys Targaryen had sent a detachment to the fort having once belonged to House Rykker.

With no dragon to order their surrender, the Northerners had fought ruthlessly their Freedmen opponents, and the Unsullied they faced had been too hastily trained and too few in numbers. The attackers did not manage to take the harbour by surprise, and the defenders repulsed them with the full support of Duskendale population. The smallfolk and the wealthy remembered all too well what had happened the last time an Essossi woman had been in command of the place. In the Defiance of Duskendale, the older part of the population had suffered long months of siege, and watched the great banners of Westeros mustered in their entirety against them.

Duskendale was to remain under the King in the North's crown, but Artos Umber was not to gloat long of his first victory. A minor injury had infected during the small-sized clash, and the long period of celebrations the Umber men participated ensured the wound was not treated properly until it was too late. Artos Umber, fifteen name days old, died in his bed drunk and with a girl of little reputation.

King Robb considered the possibility of naming another Umber to the lordship-for unknown reasons the Umber men were really popular in the taverns of Duskendale- but the Greatjon politely refused the offer, explaining all hands were necessary to rebuild Last Hearth and the other strongholds of his lands.

As this option was closed, King Robb decided to reward another Northern House which had loyally served him in the war and had still enough members to form a cadet branch: House Tallhart. The men of Torrhen's Square were elevated from their Masterly position to a Noble one (as were House Glover and House Manderly by the same royal decree).Ser Helman Tallhart became Lord of Torrhen's Square under a torrent of applause, his daughter Eddara being confirmed as Heiress (the eldest son Benfred had died during the Ironborn raids on the Stony Shore). Leobald Tallhart was proposed the position of Lord of Duskendale, but chose to pass the title directly to his eldest son Brandon, judging the diverse illnesses caught during the Northern Campaign would prevent him from lasting long in the South (many observers felt that for a man who died in 314AC, Leobald Tallhart took a long time to pass away). Cementing further the alliance between the two great provinces of the new kingdom, newly proclaimed Lord Brandon Tallhart of Duskendale was to marry Bess Bracken.

This was not the only lordship to change hands. If Lord Perwyn Rosby, 'Little' Walder Darry, Ser Wendel Manderly, Lucas Blackwood and Brynden Staunton (formerly Shawney but had now wed a cadet-line daughter of Rook's Rest) were confirmed in their lordship duties of Rosby, Darry, Maidenpool, Sow's Horn and Rook's Rest were confirmed, there were other places where changes were badly needed.

Namely Barrowton, Stokeworth and Harrenhal.

Barrowton was dealt first, due to his proximity to Winterfell. Lady Barbrey Dustin, widow of the long-deceased Lord Willam Dustin, had the dubious honour of owning the title 'worst Northern bannerswoman': the contributions of Barrowton in the War of the Eight Kings and the Second Long Night had all been the product of volunteers and Knight Houses. From the Lady herself, there had been only inaction and derisive answers. This kind of non-violent treason could not let go unanswered, and a court presided by the King and Queen in the North stripped Lady Barbrey of her titles and her possessions, before sending her to the Silent Sisters of White Harbor (there were some rumours that had not House Ryswell interceded, the sentence could have been a lot harsher). The new Lady of Barrowton was to be King's Robb's sister, Princess Sansa Stark, whose already considerable standing increased enormously overnight.

Then it was the turn of Stokeworth. After the Battle of the Four Armies there had been plenty of confusion; Ser Hugo Vance had been named Lord of the ancient Stokeworth estate but the Vance cadet son was revealed to have met his end somewhere in the inferno, and it had been in reality his younger brother Ellery who had taken his title (archives were not exactly clear whose members of House Vance had died at King's Landing, with plenty of patrols pacifying the Southern Riverlands and disappearing sometimes for months). Now that Ellery's death had been confirmed however (some talked about the pox, as his body was found in one of the newly established whorehouse in the Riverlands), House Stark declared Kirth Vance was to be the new Lord of Stokeworth, in spite of several misgivings: the performance of House Vance of Wayfarer's Rest was revealing to be under-average as each report came in 302AC.

For Harrenhal it was more difficult. Not because they weren't enough Freys left (the naivety of this assumption would be shown several decades later) but due to the destruction of the seat they were supposed to exercise their influence from. Aenys Frey tried masterfully to complain to everyone having power over him (the names beginning with King Robb Stark and ending with Lord Edmure Tully) but the effort was in pure loss. The Kingdom of the Trident had neither the political will nor the means to rebuild Harrenhal. Harren's folly had been a drain in funds and a permanent headache as the Houses which resided there never lasted long. In fact the supplications produced the exact opposite effect wanted amongst the higher-ranked nobles: since Harrenhal was destroyed and done King Robb concluded, the whole lordship existence was cumbersome and not particularly wished.

There were rumours several years down the line that Aenys Frey had entertained thoughts of rebellion at this precise moment...but the dreams of insurrection died with the announcement of the monarch's decrees. The lands, rivers, mills and other revenues formerly sworn to Harrenhal were divided into three large knighthoods. Aenys Frey and his family retained one of course, centred on Harrentown and the ruined castle. The other two were granted to Lothar 'the Lame' Frey (who took the lands east of Harrenhal) and Symond Frey (who took the lands south and west of it). Minor gold gifts were equally delivered to build the new castles. Ser Aenys Frey was forced to abandon his protests shortly after, as his numerous brothers, cousins, nephews and nieces eyed his much reduced holdings with a non-disguised avidity.

There were many other lands and offices granted, which made several emissaries and lords watching more or less neutrally that King Robb the First of the Name was cleaning his possessions before the Duskendale struggle, an impulsion those in the know betted had originated with Lord Wyman Manderly and Lady Catelyn Stark.

The Westerlands were divided into two minor Paramountcies, one centred on Ashemark and governed by Lord Addam Marbrand, the other being remaining under the historic control of Casterly Rock. As part of the reconciliation process, Queen Val Stark would in person legitimise the young Joy Hill and name her the Lady of Lannisport. The ladyship of Joy Lannister was to herald a new era for the ancient masters of the Rock, but one everyone was sure Lord Tywin Lannister would not have appreciated. It was overshadowed by the marriage of Lady Asha Greyjoy and Lord Podrick Payne at Winterfell though. Indeed, the courting efforts of Ser Justin Massey to woo the new Lady of Casterly Rock had failed big time (to the point at an unspecified point of time, the Massey knight raced alone and unsupported to White Harbor like an army of Others were behind him) and the last alive member of House Greyjoy had chosen the last of the Black Lions to warm her bed in the last cold winter nights. As the last surviving members of the Night's Watch chose to return to their homes, this decision did not pose major difficulties. Historians were to remark that the Greyjoy name would not be completely abandoned by Lady Asha until 305AC on the other hand. For this brave exploit, Lord Podrick would be known humorously as 'the Kraken-Tamer' by smallfolk and knights alike. Another amusing coincidence developing near the former Lannister holdings would be the massive increase of men and women rejecting the Faith and venerating Lord Tyrion Lannister as a half-god figure.

As the Northern, Riverlands and Western nobles slowly rode to Duskendale, the other kingdoms and factions were on their way too. More than the organisers had planned for to be accurate. Columns of riders coming from the 'Greater Stormlands', the Reach and Dorne, now united in the Storm Kingdom. Queen Shireen, Lord Richard Horpe, Grand Admiral Davos Seaworth, Lord Garlan Tyrell, Ser Garth Hightower were only a fraction of the famous names advancing towards the ancient seat of the destroyed House Darklyn. Queen Ygritte and her consort Jon Snow arrived, followed by the surviving nobility of the Vale. The Braavosi, who had been expected after the contribution they had played in the Second Long Night, and their new Sealord Naavos Haados. The Tyroshi, the Myrish and the Lysene, who were not invited but came nonetheless, accompanied by exiled Prince Trystane Martell and his wife Myrcella. A large number of representatives from the Targaryen Empire led by Regent Missandei had arrived. The list of people who came was in the tens of thousands: the war had ended and the naval trade was growing again. Men and women travelled sometimes as far as the Summer Islands or Ibben to the deliberations. Thousands more tents had to be raised, and nearly every kingdom had to bring large food shipments such was the enthusiasm for this Great Council.

The first decision of the Great Council of Duskendale was the first to be spoken...and without contestation the most significant. Taken at the complete unanimity, every leader or representative of Westeros and Essos swore to defend humanity against the abominations lying in the frozen wastes of the North. It was an unconditional oath, promised at the lights of every existing divinity. No matter the time elapsed, no matter the ruler, no matter the financial difficulties, no matter the enmities, the oath had to be answered. The Others and the dark force waiting far beyond-the-Wall were the True Enemy. The only Enemy which mattered. Should the Others come back, in one year or one millennium, the Westerosi and Essossi would be oath-bound to bury their feuds and fight united against the Darkness. King Robb Stark swore for the Kingdom of the North and the Trident under the Old Gods, his second Lord Edmure Tully swearing under the New Gods. Queen Shireen Baratheon swore for the Storm Kingdom, swearing in front of the flames of R'hllor. Grand Admiral Davos Seaworth made the oath under the New Gods as a second. Sandor 'the Hound' Clegane, Lord Rodrik 'the Reader' Harlaw, Lord Willas Tyrell, Ser Baelor Hightower, Lord Anders Yronwood, Lord Edric Dayne, Sealord Naavos Haados, Regent Missandei, General Grey Worm and hundreds of warriors joined their voices to this momentous occasion. It was a promise: whatever the enemy which would come to kill humanity, there would be no surrender, no accommodations. Should a Third Long Night come, humanity would live free and united again...or die trying.


	110. Dividing Westeros

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Westeros, Essos or Duskendale.

 **Author's note** : this chapter has its own map, posted on /forum/threads/asoaif-a-different-weasel-makes-a-difference.335520/page-147#post-13762659 (you have to be a member however I think to see it).

X59: The fate of the Brotherhood of the Hound will be explained in this chapter. No, they aren't included in the Northern-held Westerlands. They will chose independence, and the future will tell if it's a good or a bad thing.

Paul: The Manderlys were the Lords of White Harbor, a Masterly House. Now they have a Noble one.

Ah, at last one noticed the Tallhart issue. Mass graves are unfortunately common happenstance in medieval wars (and modern too for that matter). Leobald Tallhart was just making excuses. Yeah, Tyrion is finally getting a lot of respect...while he is dead. Unfair life...

House Rykker was attainted. They chose Joffrey in the war, and while Robb is not a monster, he didn't want them in power anymore. They were left enough to start a new life, but they are now on the level of very modest knights.

Jon Vance will be the new Heir of Atranta. He has recently returned home after having fled Oldtown when the Ironborn came, and decided not to follow his maesters vows anymore.

For best or for worse, Harrenhal was important lordship, a sign Aenys was really someone in the Game of Thrones. Without this castle, his own importance has suffered a huge setback. Forgot for Symond, let's just say there is another one, it's not like there aren't an over-abundance of weasels...

Yes, Podrick's fate is a callback for the show.

thepkrgmc: Yes, hopefully...these are many decades away, the Others have had their armies wiped out and for the moment are trying to assess their losses.

Sage of Wind Dragons: Podrick seduced Asha...or Asha seduced Podrick. Asha is not pregnant(yet).

Sansa is indeed going to have a fair amount of power and influence. House Stark is going to have an impressive power block.

The problem with the Freys is that it's hilarious at first, and then it tends to turn to tragedy...

ARabidTiger: No, no it's not the last we hear about the various cults Tyrion Lannister gave birth...

TMI Fairy: Thanks a lot for your support!

Gremlin Jack: Yes, yes he does (grin).

 **Dividing Westeros**

 **The Great Council of Duskendale Part II**

" _Look at this map. The unity of the Seven Kingdoms is long gone_." Lord Willas Tyrell, 303AC.

" _I begin to regret the Mother of Dragons._ " Lord Sebastion Errol, after a disastrous negotiation with Regent Missandei, 303AC.

" _A truly marvellous work of literature, if I say so myself_." Ser Justin Massey speaking about the Life and Times of Ser Justin Massey, 303AC.

" _One continent, a lot of kingdoms_. This is the legacy of Duskendale." Empress Vhaela Targaryen, 360AC.

If the start of the Great Council created a wave of optimism kings and lords could act in coordination to achieve a greater objective, this unprecedented enthusiasm soon plunged as fast as it had appeared. The Others forces had been vanquished; now it was time to divide the lands which five years ago had been part of a single realm.

Realistically, it could have hardly concluded in a different manner. With the heroic death of King Stannis Baratheon in battle, the greatest supporter of a united Westeros had disappeared. There was no great champion to advocate the end of division and the return to a single sovereign...and in the case there had been one, this imaginary man would certainly not have been listened to. The War of the Eight Kings had created massive gaps and terrible feuds between the belligerents, and it was only after the invasion of the White Walkers the Last Alliance had emerged from the carnage. The Great Enemy defeated, the Northmen, the Stormlanders and all the different constituents were slowly or quickly reverting to their ancient habits.

One of the first issues to be spoken was the Iron Islands. Under two Kings respectively known for their lack of sense and cruelty, the archipelago had been razed and properly devastated. Except the islands of Blacktyde and Harlaw, the foundations of Ironborn culture had been so utterly crushed that the Hightower and Tyrell representatives renounced officially to demand reparations in gold or wood. The Iron Islands were going to pass under Northern control, and already Mallister and Glover representatives were leading the effort to convert the islanders to the Old and New Gods. The Drowned God veneration had to disappear, and the sooner the better.

On the other hand, if it was not possible to retaliate by pillaging the raw resources of the Iron Islands, the men of the Reach were not in a mood to forget what the reavers had done in their campaigns of slaughter. Lord Garlan Tyrell and Ser Gunthor Hightower insisted during several days the Ironborn could not be trusted, and their perseverance explained why the terms in the end were so harsh. No weapons of war were to be forged in the Iron Islands for a period of fifty years. The number of hulls an Ironborn could own, whether he was on his home islands or the mainland, was extremely restricted. Development of naval bases were forbidden and the offenders to be punished by death. By formal agreement King Robb Stark agreed the new lords of Pyke, Old Wyk, Great Wyk and Orkmont would be chosen from the nobility and the knight ranks of the Riverlands and other regions from the Kingdom of the North and the Trident. Saltcliffe was ceded to the Storm Kingdom and Ser Desmond Redwyne became its new lord, in the non-disguised ambition the Ironborn were never ever in measure to reedit their offensive of butchery and sorcery. Two massive naval build-ups and rebellions in less than twenty years made sure the Ironborn cause found no friends at the negotiations. That Braavos, Tyrosh and the other Free Cities had all lost merchants at one time or another due to the reavers did not help.

The debate about the fate of Blackwater Bay was far louder and the participants spent four times that many days to arrive at a decision (and the Iron Islands issue had taken nine days by the way). To their discharge, there were a lot of contested issues in the theatre: Dragonstone, Driftmark, Claw Isle, Crackclaw Point and of course King's Landing.

The least debatable lordship was Claw Isle. Lady Lucia Celtigar declared for King Robb Stark, the incentives offered by the harbours of Maidenpool and White Harbor being quite attractive for someone who had been strong-armed to join the Targaryen side under the shadow of dragon wings. This was a minor diplomatic defeat for Regent Missandei, but Claw Isle was simply not as valuable strategically or historically as Driftmark or Dragonstone.

These two islands were at the Great Council the subject of many claims and counter-claims. The Storm Kingdom, former owner of the dragon-shaped stronghold and the adjacent island, wanted these key strongholds back under their control. There were plenty of Stormlanders and former Crownlanders to argue Queen Shireen's claim on Dragonstone was the best of all possible candidates. And by all accounts, the smallfolk living in these two famous islands were going to welcome the Baratheon dynasty back with open arms, right?

Sadly in this instance, reality bit back. For once, spies and courtesy visits from the Storm fleet reported the popularity of the new Storm Kingdom was not exactly shining of a thousand suns on Driftmark. Perhaps it had to do with the horrible death of Lord Monford Velaryon and a majority of his men in an ocean of wildfire at the First Battle of King's Landing. Or maybe it was the high taxes, the requisition of Driftmark's fishing fleet and the withdrawal of the naval forces when the Targaryen and the Others had landed at Dragonstone. The motives were clearly not lacking for this antagonism.

No matter the reason, it became evident Lord Monterys Velaryon councillors (Monterys being ten years old, no one expected him really to take such an important decision) saw of a very bad eye a renewed allegiance to Storm's End. Led by a Valyrian-looking merchant named Laenon Tyde (that any suspected of being a Volantene exile in disguise), the Driftmark delegation confirmed at every corner of the city of Duskendale their firm intention to be a vital part of the Targaryen Empire. When one added to this the fact two-thirds of the actual Dragonstone population had arrived with the Mother of Dragons, Lord Richard Horpe and Ser Donnel Swann found themselves in troubled waters. With the majority of Westeros thoroughly disgusted by warfare in all forms for a generation, the popularity of Queen Shireen, right inherited from her father King Stannis, was one of the best arguments they had for the Stag's banner to float atop the citadel of Dragonstone.

But like Lord Sebastion Errol remarked, the Stormlands had still one more card to play.

Vhaela Targaryen and her twin Tyanna Martell, twins of the deceased Princess Arianne Martell, were at Storm's End under heavy guard. The Crown of Storm's End could always bargain the return of their would-be Empress against the strategically-emplaced fortress. The proposition divided the Storm delegation a lot, many influential men and women including Grand Admiral Davos Seaworth and Ser Justin Massey finding abhorrent the act of using a babe in the greatest diplomatic event of the century to come. It went on by a very slim majority...in pure loss.

Many Stormlands negotiators had completely underestimated Regent Missandei, and the new beautiful governor of the Targaryen had no intention to let herself be coerced. She had also a consequent Volantene diplomatic party with her, and for these politicians, the Westerosi demands were pure delicacies to devour. Shocking hundreds of people, Missandei declared her Queen had ordered her to govern until the best Targaryen candidate was in age of reigning. But if the Southern Kingdoms were only willing to part with the best claimants at unacceptable conditions, that was perfectly fine. The Targaryen Empire governed Volantis after all, and in the young woman's own word "we can find and raise a young orphan of the Old Blood to be the ruler this Empire deserves."

The affair was a gigantic slap in the face of the Stormlanders, though one might argue it strongly reinforced afterwards the authority of Queen Shireen, who had emitted strong reservations about the whole strategy. As the Kingdom of the Vale and the Northern realm recognised the Targaryen's control of Dragonstone, the Storm Kingdom most virulent expansionists were forced to grit their teeth in a bad imitation of their defunct monarch and accept Targaryen's control of Dragonstone. Vhaela Targaryen was traded in exchange of several food convoys and important stocks of Myrish products, a heavy price but not the golden goose the lords of the South had imagined. Not that the talks ended there.

The issue of Crackclaw Point was controversial too. Originally, everyone had believed the amnesty proclaimed by King Robb Stark was going to be the final settlement in this part of what used to be the eastern Crownlands. The short passage of Queen Daenerys Targaryens had not been a good year for the Brunes, Boggs, Pynes, Crabbs, Hardys and the rest of their factions. Especially in terms of the young generation they had lost to war.

The problem, as many lords like Lord Redfort or Lord Wendel Manderly reported in the years afterwards, was that the words 'amnesty' and 'pardon' had been misunderstood by those ruling Crackclaw Point like their personal fiefdom in the last half-decade. The King and the Queen in the North were determined to let past actions died in a frozen pond, but that did not mean the taxes exemption, the weapon deals and the sellsword contracts were going to continue like they had in King Robert's period. The Kingdom in the North and the Trident was not the Seven Kingdoms, and King Robb Stark was not going to let a greater part of his smaller realm respect the laws they wanted when and where there wished.

This was not what the locals wanted to hear, and in a very rapid reversal, Ser Bennard Brune and his colleagues tried to find another ruler "worthy of their swords", though everyone understood it was more a question of gold dragons and non-interference in their own affairs.

The Targaryen Empire, by the voice of a Meereen Freedman refused in a bark of laughter, and the Storm Kingdom was not considered an acceptable solution as the Baratheons were still bitterly remembered in these valleys and hills as the ones who had broken a two hundred eighty-plus years old dynasty. After three days where a lot of persons turned around each other like lions in a cage, the Crackclaw delegation acknowledged the Kingdom of the Vale as their kingdom and Queen Ygritte as their sovereign. No good compromise leaving every side satisfied, the men of the small peninsula did not get half of the terms they wished: the new ruler of the Eyrie advised by her husband made quite clear the investments of the Vale Crown in this part of her lands would be proportional to the amount of taxation they agreed to pay. "Zero will be worth zero", resumed Ser Justin Massey with his usual irony and bluntness.

It was then time to pass to the real point of contention: King's Landing. Once upon a time a dirty and smelly city boasting the greatest number of smallfolk, tradesmen, bards, septons, royals and alchemists, the former capital was nothing but a ruin where a few tents had been hastily planted and half a hundred survivors searched the rubble to see if heirlooms of the pre-Battle of the Four Armies could be recovered. All the houses, walls, towers, ramparts and constructions were unsafe. The atmosphere was putrid and haunted. The value found in these destroyed streets, avenues and mansions was nil.

It did not stop the Storm Kingdom, the Targaryen Empire and the Kingdom of the North and the Trident to all make claims to this torn-apart city, perfect symbol of Aerys II's madness. Living in this capital of bitter souvenirs was impossible, but like Dragonstone the mouth of the Blackwater was a frontier coloured in red on every map of importance. It was no true none of the diverse kingdoms had the funds to rebuild it in 303AC. For several knights and proud people, this didn't matter. The dire economic circumstances of 303AC were not going to last, and once the rebuilding was over, the kingdom which owned King's Landing would be in an unparalleled place to dominate Blackwater's Bay (a claim several lords and councillors found detached from reality).

Hundreds of men and women screamed, shouted, argued and insinuated things that would leave unpleasant marks behind the light of the political scene. To arrive to a point many neutral observers had recognised was ineluctable. On the western coast of Westeros, Sandor Clegane and his band of outlaws had created the Western Free Republic, a move the Reach constantly vilified as being sponsored by interested parties in Essos. Centred on the castle of Crakehall, these lands welcomed former outlaws and refugees by the thousands, and made a buffer state between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.

Under Braavosi and Vale proposals, the offer was to apply this treatment on the eastern coast. But as King Robb Stark was not in the mood to relinquish a large portion of what was to become the Eastern Marches (and Queen Shireen's Hand Lord Richard gave similar reservations), a new great nation was not to be forged.

King's Landing was to become a Free City, making a large majority of the Essossi present jump to the Seven Heavens in joy. The only question left who was to be the ruler of this city once the reconstruction work started.

To be honest, the applicants for the masterly command of King's Landing were not legion. The next day after the official choice was announced, everyone had understood the title was honorific and would bring a power equal to the one possessed by the pre-war Prince of Pentos. For the illiterate masses, it meant none. Between the Republic of Braavos, the Targaryen Empire, the Northern and Storm Kingdoms, the trio Lys-Myr-Tyrosh, Lorath...there was an over-abundance of nations to participate in the rebirth of King's Landing. Translated in a huge and invading foreign presence, with thousands of interests, profit seekers and trade companies willing to fill their pockets. None of the aforementioned factions were interested in a strong authority. At best the new ruler would have a City Watch (although everyone made quite clear the name 'Goldcloaks' was to be banished from the minds). In exceptional circumstances the money-lenders might consider the new 'Prince' hold a sliver of authority and issue a few orders.

The title of 'Baylord' as a result did not enflame the passions of the crowd. After several turns of hourglasses which saw the Kings and lords propose less and less 'acceptable' men, the Tyroshi delegation spoke of a possibility not raised until then: Prince Trystane Martell and his wife Myrcella Baratheon. The young couple had been 'honoured guests' of the Archon since the time they had landed at Tyrosh, and no one knew exactly what to do about such prestigious 'guests'. Such was the lassitude after many senseless conversations the vote thereafter was carried in a landslide. Under the strict condition of renouncing any royal and princely claim they had in Westeros or elsewhere, Bay-Prince Trystane Martell and Bay-Princess Myrcella Baratheon were elevated to the prestigious and powerless King's Landing leadership.

The Blackwater Bay issues provided a powerful contrast with the 'Wall frontier' and the Three Sisters. Prince-Consort Jon Snow and his royal half-brother arrived easily to a compromise: the Kingdom of the Vale recovered Longsister while the two other islands went under the control of Winterfell. The New Gift being integrated back into the Stark kingdom provided merely an eyebrow rising or two, as the Night's Watch was clearly annihilated militarily and its reform was not to truly commence until 305AC. The core of these new lands was eventually going to form the Darkstark lordship, with Princess Arya ruling them from 306AC onwards. The island of Skane and Sirk were loaned to the Braavosi, due to the Sealord's express demands of having a logistical stronghold to deploy should the Others come back in strength.

This did not mean the Great Council was limited to purely secular affairs, however. In the last moon of 303AC, Ser Justin Massey published his first book the _Life and Times of Ser Justin Massey_ the first biography relating in long and large the War of the Eight Kings and the Second Long Night. While thousands of readers continue to deplore the extraordinary ego of its author, it remained a classic for decades and still today armchair generals use the maps and detailed explanations of the war-hero to build their 'What if?' war-games. Of course, it was somewhat overshadowed by his second announcement. Ser Justin Massey was going to marry...


	111. A Negotiated Marriage

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own Westeros, Essos or Duskendale.

 **Author's note 1** : There probably won't be any other chapter before the end of this week, so Merry Christmas!

 **Author's note 2** : I think there's a problem on the reviews again since Wednesday...will answer them on this story and the others as soon as it is repaired.

X59: This is a very good lesson indeed to keep in mind, and many politicians should remember it today along with a few others.

As for Justin Massey's marriage, everything is revealed in this chapter...

Paul: The Storm Kingdom got Sharp Point. As for Sweetport sound, I placed it tentatively on the southern bank of Blackwater Bay, so the Storm Kingdom too.

Dacey, Sansa and Margaery, eh? Good attempts, but not correct, I fear...

Lady Lucia is indeed Lord Ardrian's daughter, and has a single son from a now dead husband who went to war.

Something left to decided? Oh my, you didn't think it was over don't you?

pettersoderberg01: Good tries, but no. The answer is below...

raw666: Yes, groups whose purpose is the reunification of the Seven Kingdoms are going to form. Problem is, they will have different opinion about the manner it must happen, and the authorities aren't going to let them plot.

thepkrgmc: That was the very point I had in mind when I wrote the Great Council. By the nature of the compromise, no one is going to be completely satisfied...though some will be more than others.

Sage of Wind Dragons:

yesboss21: Mind-boggling...yes this word certainly applies to this round of negotiations.

ML: Thanks a lot for your compliments!

Ah...the conspiracies theories will certainly appear in Westeros much like in our own. Too much fertile ground for that...

Sean Mulligan: Let's just say that between their tendency to serve the one who pays the most, their monumental corruption, the general incompetence of their officers, running away from the battlefield when it begins to get tough...the Goldcloaks are not exactly the epitome of an elite force.

 **A Negotiated Marriage**

 **The Great Council of Duskendale Part III**

" _I love my wife. She and I have many common points...we love sex, politics and annoying people_. _Mayhap not in that particular order, mind you_." Extract from the _Memoirs of Ser Justin Massey_. This tome was never published, and remains restricted of access at the Summerhall library.

" _The high point of this Great Council was the Oath. We are nearing the low now_." Lord Edmure Tully to King Robb Stark while departing for Riverrun, 303AC.

" _I don't remember the historical frontiers of the Storm Kingdom ever being so far west_." Anonymous Reach lord, 303AC.

" _Massey and his wife are going to be a thorn in our side for decades_." Lord Garlan Tyrell, 304AC.

Before the death of King Robert Baratheon, the marriage of Ser Justin Massey to a noble Lady, no matter the name, would have been an exceptional matter and subject to deep scrutiny by the rest of the realm. The most famous deed of the Massey knight had been to squire for the King, but this had been an 'exploit' shared by several young highborn.

But while the other young men chosen to serve the King of the Seven Kingdoms had generally fathers with big purses and plenty of lands to give (the name Lannister came back a lot when said Houses were mentioned), Ser Justin had truth to tell not much to propose to his future bride. Second son of Lord Gorm Massey, the knight many referred as 'the Smiler' had become a sworn sword of Lord Stannis Baratheon at Dragonstone well before the death of Hand of the King Jon Arryn. The lands, the Castle and the name of Massey were to go to the elder son Victor, leaving Ser Justin with the owner rights of a small village and a moderately comfortable house.

Except for the war-hero who illustrated himself at the Battle of the Last Alliance, the outcome of the war had not been brilliant for House Massey. Lord Gorm had believed himself a bit too clever for his own good in leading a charge in the First Battle of King's Landing, and had been struck down and taken prisoner. While no parchments confirmed or denied this version of events, it was believed the Lord of Stonedance was one of the prisoners murdered in the Black Cells when Queen Cersei lost her last vestiges of sanity. The explosion of wildfire made sure that the exact circumstances of this demise could never be truly investigated, a fate alas shared by thousands of nobles and smallfolks alike.

As Ser Justin took control of the Massey survivors and went on to become one of the senior commanders of King Stannis, Lord Victor Massey returned to his manor and passed the rest of his life sulking and brooding (some authors openly asked years after the fact if Victor wanted to be the opposite of his cadet), until his ultimate death in 325AC. Wallace Massey, a cousin of the main branch, served in the Night's Watch as Lord Commander Denys Mallister's squire and perished in the Great Battle of the Wall. As for the third son, Josua Massey, his fate was a particularly comic one: as the Golden Company members had rushed northwards in their invasion of the Stormlands, Josua Massey had personally avoided death...because he was drunk and unconscious in the closest tavern. His entire platoon had been lost though, and the Stormlanders officers had not judged useful to give this pitiful swordsman a new command.

His funds dilapidated at an impressive speed in wine barrels and whorehouses, Ser Josua Massey armour-less knight (the horse, the armour and the sword had disappeared somewhere to pay the stupendous bills the landlords charged him) found himself at Oldtown, like plenty of refugees fleeing the troubles of war, famine and devastation. The story of Josua Massey could have passed unperceived by the great annals of history, but the love the Massey third son had towards beer, wine and anything more or less alcoholic propelled him to the leadership of the Cult of the Drinking Gods in 303AC, a group of seriously drunk Oldtown citizens venerating Lord Tyrion Lannister and King Robert Baratheon as holy patrons worthy of their adoration. Contrary to far more popular and renowned developing cults like the Church of the Dwarf Triumphant, the Cult of the Drinking Gods seemed to have no ideology or religious theme, their intentions focusing on drinking a pint of beer and then drink another, with the minimum interval of time between the two. This fondness of drinks (and their lack of ability to pay them) created extremely quickly a one-sided street battle with the City's Watch. Josua Massey was arrested and sent to Oldtown's prison, with his future prospects becoming dire. A short trial later, and Josua Massey found himself expedited to Saltcliffe, condemned to break his back for the next twenty years among other criminals.

Far, far away in King's Landing, his brother Justin faced a difficult period too. To begin with, the village he was the knight of had been attacked while he was away participating in the Northern campaign. And by surprisingly well-armed bandits at that. No evidence found was enough to accuse Lord Victor Massey, as the culprits all died at the hands of a Storm patrol, but in whispers lords and knights conceded there wasn't much doubt on who was responsible.

The knight born at Stonedance was also the target of many coordinated and malicious rumours spread at the Great Council. A few of the men suspected to be behind them had been truthfully displeased by the book the _Life and Times of Justin Massey_ , but the overwhelming majority were attacking Ser Justin in rapport of his unconditional support of King Stannis and his daughter. The Storm King's reputation was now undefeatable, and so was the one of his daughter Queen Shireen. Lord Richard Horpe of Summerhall and Ser Donnel Swann, Heir of Stonehelm, were too risky targets. Grand Admiral Davos Seaworth status of undefeated admiral excluded him from the rumours option, and besides the lands of House Kellington (now extinct due to a mix of personal tragedies and war) had been gifted to him. It left Ser Justin Massey...and the men sitting in the shadows had a very long list of grievances.

In total difference to King Robb Stark, Queen Shireen had decided to proceed to name the new lords of the Storm Kingdom at Duskendale. The foreign delegations found it amusing, as these irregular announces singularly brightened up a day of boring negotiations. Highgarden and scores of minor forts which had never rallied to Storm's End by conviction alone did not. The great lordships left vacant or conquered during the War between the Ironborn, the Stag, the Rose and the Dragon fell all in the hands of several Stormlanders and Crownlanders. Ser Andrew Estermont was to become the Lord of Bitterbridge, marrying one of the former Lord Caswell's daughter. Devan Seaworth was confirmed as Lord of Longtable, and by royal edict Taena of Myr and her husband were exiled to said Free City (the edict was only partially respected; Lady Taena was soon seen back at King's Landing). Ser Gerald Gower was given Ashford. Omer Blackberry was granted the castle of Wyl. Ser Triston of Tally Hill took Starpike.

They were cases where the natural heirs and heiresses received their title back, House Costayne, Tarly and Bulwer were proof of that clemency...but in the 'conquered Reach', as the lands between Cider Hall and Tumbleton had been nicknamed, it was increasingly rare. Under the advice of her Regent and several key advisors of her father, Queen Shireen was indeed annexing a large part of the Reach, not only in name but transferring the region allegiances to men having fought lengthily for the Storm cause. One of the derogations to this rule could be found in the person of Ser Balon Swann: the second son of Lord Gulian had been one of King Joffrey's Kingsguard, but his victories in the Dornish Civil War and the service of his eldest brother Donnel convinced the Storm Queen to name him Master of Tumbleton.

Needless to say, this profusion of titles delivered to men who were in reputation if not in blood 'Storm swords' had not pleased those who had one time or another held undisputed powers over the immense grass plains along the Mander. Moreover House Tyrell and several of their most loyal bannersmen watched with attention and realised the gratitude of many Nobles Houses deliberately kept in power Queen Shireen did not lay towards the Rose Citadel. House Tarly, to name the most famous example, had very little reason to remember fondly Lord Mace Tyrell's past actions. Lady Melessa Tarly born Florent was a very different sort of political animal than the defunct Lord Randyll, and since King Stannis had reinstalled her at Horn Hill with her daughters she had trained her eldest Talla to be her generation's Queen of Thorns.

The violence generated by the Smallfolk Uprising, the loss of the Maesters, the divisions and schisms of the Faith...all these moves weakened House Tyrell and House Hightower. But the latter had still a massive city under their control, and could truthfully say they had defended their holdings on their own in the darkest hour. Highgarden and the surrounding territories could not. In itself, the Great Council of Duskendale was a last-ditch attempt to regain status, influence and power by very questionable methods.

It monumentally backfired. Perhaps the death of Lady Olenna Tyrell had dulled the Reachers estimations of their subtlety, or they had underestimated the Storm Crown spies. Anyway, the rumours, dealings in the shadows and many 'training accidents' had been reported in high places. And neither Regent Richard Horpe nor Ser Donnel Swann, Lord Davos Seaworth, not to mention Queen Shireen, wanted to tolerate this return to Reach dominance. Giving the newborn Anemone Baratheon the control of the Shield Islands was the bait...and the Cordwayners, Costaynes (amongst others) fell for it, revealing their naked ambitions.

In one stroke, the fate of the Reach was decided. The lands not incorporated in the Greater Stormlands were divided in two new Paramountcies: one was left to Lord Willas Tyrell, ranging from the Western Free Republic to Brightwater Keep. The other was given to House Hightower, and by a strange coincidence traduced an accomplished fact as it included all Oldtown's historical banners.

But Storm's End rule had not finished to curb the Reach ambitions. Indeed, the morning before the Reach division, Ser Justin Massey had announced his marriage...to Lady Desmera Redwyne.

The whole affair was a gigantic slap in the face of the surviving Southern aristocracy. Granted, the Arbor had been pillaged by the Ironborn with an incredible ferocity, but the sole survivor of Mina Tyrell three children was still one of the most powerful young women in age to be married. Twenty name days with orange hair and some freckles, Lady Desmera was a beauty who had plenty of suitors.

However, the daughter of the defunct Paxter Redwyne had not originally come to King's Landing in the sole purpose of finding a good husband. The Arbor was in dire need of good old gold dragons, its shipping infrastructure damaged beyond redemption. Rebuilding efforts on land proper had been progressing well, as hundreds of smallfolk and merchants sold as slaves were progressively repatriated, but to put it bluntly, the coffers of the Arbor were empty. Lady Desmera needed concrete currency, and in virtue of her familial ties turned to House Hightower and Tyrell for it.

To her shock, the young Lady was politely dismissed. The powers left in the Reach after the death of the Crow's Eye were of course very interested in the production of wine to resume on the Arbor, but not to continue the rapport of force having existed before the War of the Eight Kings. As the kings and lords spoke, House Tyrell rebuilt the naval forces of the Shield Islands as an advanced naval base, and House Hightower was developing its already formidable shipbuilding capacities. The assessment was stark and clear: once the Arbor would have recovered, House Redwyne role would be painfully limited to sell its expensive nectars. But in its own harbours, and at the prices the merchants of the so-close mainland would demand. The merchants of Oldtown and the great castles of the Sunset Coast were not salivating, but it was because their dignity of wealthy individuals forbids it.

Unfortunately for them, their opponent in affairs was Lady Desmera Redwyne, and the young Mistress of the Arbor set to prove that she was a true granddaughter of Olenna Tyrell. At King's Landing, a quick secret agreement was passed with Grand Admiral Davos Seaworth; in exchange of a small percentage on the Arbor's income, the Storm Fleet would 'loan' for the next twenty years hundreds of sailors. By all accounts, the former smuggler and now legendary Admiral was very amused by the irony of rebuilding the fleet he had been trying so hard to evade during Robert's Rebellion.

But it was not enough for the ambitious Lady. Desmera Redwyne signed a second agreement, this one with the historians' representatives of Summerhall, granting them influence and a chance to test the construction of shipyards theories lying in their dusty tomes. In return, no maesters would set foot on the Arbor and plenty of documentation and studies on wine production was to be given. And then a third. Her lands still needing a large amount of cash, Lady Desmera turned towards a knight whose simple proximity in the last conflict tended to seriously deplete immense sums of gold: Ser Justin Massey.

Every warrior and knight able to count to ten knew it was not a coincidence that all the fortresses which fell to the lieutenant of King Stannis Baratheon tended to have their vaults lacking hundreds of gold dragons. But evidence to prove it was singularly scarce; the only act proving Ser Justin was not a pauper living at Storm's End expense was his first book's publication. The rumours had tried to elaborate on the subject, but the exiled and ruined lords had been unable to find where their funds had been sent (it was only seventy years after Justin's death it was revealed part of the gold had been hidden in several Essossi banks with an impressive skill). Everybody had suspicions but Lady Desmera was the first and the only person to call the smiling knight on it. The bargain was simple, the twenty name-days woman needed the gold, Ser Justin Massey wanted a lordship, and both shared a common trait in defying what the respectable society expected. Marriage, when one looked at it, was largely the natural conclusion. Ser Justin agreed to take his wife's name; (some whispered that after the 'help' his family gave him, the Smiler was not disposed to continue the family line) the union was thereafter celebrated in front of the Storm Queen and hundreds of Westerosi and Essossi dignitaries.

King Robb Stark and Lord Edmure Tully left shortly after this momentous and joyous event. Ser Brynden Tully was dying at Riverrun, and his relatives wanted to see him a last time. There was also the partition of the Westerlands to be decided.

The talks at Duskendale tended to discuss minor details or foreign ones to Westeros. Braavos conserving Pentos but being forced to accept the Targaryen Empire's ownership of the southern Pentoshi Bay was one of these points.

For the Storm Kingdom, the lordship elevations were at an end too. Lord Garlan Tyrell kept Brightwater Keep and the ancient Florent lands, a move many felt was rooted in Regent Horpe's need to not completely alienate Lord Willas Tyrell and his cadet brother. Alekyne Florent, who by all rights of succession should have been ruling this area, was married to Lady Linnea Rowan. Lord Alester's only son was grim at the news, and hundreds of rumours spread within the year the Lady of Goldengrove rarely invited in her bed the husband she had not chosen. House Vyrwel having been made extinct by the war, Queen Shireen granted the castle of the Marches to her cousin Edric, although she didn't legitimise him.

This was the last major issue revealed at the Great Council. As 303AC died down and 304AC commenced, the lords, diplomats, magisters and merchants left the city now governed by House Tallhart. There were problems yet to be resolved like certain Dornish lordships or the rebuilding methods of the Iron Islands, but these were for another day. The conflicts came to an end, the first signs of spring manifested...and an era passed into legend.


	112. The Inheritance of the Long Night

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Long Night, the North or the world of Westeros. I am not GRRM...and we're still waiting the _Winds of Winter_.

 **Author's note:** Merry Christmas! Due to some unanticipated events, this chapter is posted exceptionally on Monday, since I won't be near a computed from Tuesday to Friday.

X59: Avoiding the Blackfyre scenario is indeed the main reason. Edric will certainly mix 'Storm' with something appropriate with his new castle or lands.

Yeah, Justin is sometimes so open few realise he has not survived the war just by pure luck.

Paul: Torrhen Karstark is earmarked for a lordship in the Westerlands, by an accord passed between King Robb and the defunct Lord Rickard. It is why he wasn't mentioned until now.

Yes, good one. The Tyrells are indeed not the Lannisters...but given how far the former Masters of the Rock have fallen, it's a rather low threshold to beat.

Since the bannersmen who didn't agree with the Baratheon dynasty are dead or exiled, House Rambton and Sunglass are not that much a problem.

Ashford was conquered when Stannis invaded the Reach, and the pathetic behaviour of the current Lord was not to Stannis' liking (nor to anyone's else to be honest). When the time came to give awards and titles, Ashford was a result added to the list of lands which needed a new master.

Yes, yes. This is the same Rowan girl whose actions sent the poor Daeron to the Wall.

Edmure's comment was not about importance, but lack of unity. For a man who really tries to uphold the feudal contract, seeing the South tear itself metaphorically at the negotiations table was not a very pleasant experience.

raw666: For the moment, an era of peace on every front. The former Seven Kingdoms, simply put, have no fight in them, continue bickering and they will collapse. In a generation or two, who know? There are plenty of grievances and old claims waiting in the shadows, and the Great Council could not solve all of them.

thepkrgmc: The Arbor is directly under Storm's End control. After what just happened, giving Highgarden and Oldtown the means to punish House Redwyne economically is not wise...

Guest: Thanks for the compliment!

Tango Charlie: The map in question is on the 'Alien Space Bats Section' of the alternatehistory forum, in the thread carrying my story name...

To make it simple, the North took the Iron Islands (save Saltcliffe), the Riverlands, the Westerlands (save a band Crakehall-Silverhill), two islands of the Three Sisters and the Crownlands north of the Blackwater (save Crackclaw Point) plus the New Gift.

The Storm Kingdom took the southern Crownlands, the Reach, Dorne and Saltcliffe in the Iron Islands.

King's Landing was made a free city.

The Western Free Republic is a frontier state centred on an axis Crakehall-Silverhill.

The Targaryen Empire got Driftmark and Dragonstone, the Vale obtained Cracklaw Point and the Vale itself, plus one island of the Three Sisters.

Thanks for the support.

And now the new chapter, a very different one from all the ones which have preceded it...

 **The Inheritance of the Long Night**

"The conflicts came to an end, the first signs of spring manifested...and an era passed into legend."

An enthusiastic cheering mounted from the improvised bleachers around the platform where Maric had read during the last two hours his masterwork. Under mounting applauds, the Dawn Captain contemplated the room. All over the walls were old tapestries and paintings describing the battles humanity had fought against the Great Enemy. This was an ancient place, with an old chimney, old carpets and heavy stone walls...fortunately the electric lighting was here to break a bit this old-fashioned ambiance.

"Thank you, thank you. And with this chapter we conclude the volume one of this history of the War of the Eight Kings and the Second Long Night."

Unavoidably, the exclamations of his fellow brothers of the Order of the Dawn did not make themselves wait.

"We want MOAR!"

"Yes more about Ser Justin!" Demanded a brown-haired youth who had declared the legendary Smiler to be his favourite hero.

"I want to hear about the Dark Crusades!"

"The Wandering Direwolf!"

"The King in the North!"

"Fine, fine. All we be revealed in due time, dear public... in volume two."

A loud and powerful groan mounted from the assembly gathered in the vast hall, and Maric Seaworth smiled.

"Duty calls, I'm afraid. The Lord Commander would not be very happy with me if I'm late..."

Snickers and cheers resonated, and the Dawn Captain took his winter clothes before leaving the hall. Passing into a series of much less warm corridors, the gloves, woolly cap and warm coats were put on. The temperatures were becoming less and less pleasant these last days, and despite having done this travel dozens of times, Maric was tempted to turn back from where he came and continued to read or joke with his other brothers in a very warm room. Alas, it was not an option.

Doing his best to seal his body under the multiple layers of warm clothes, Maric approached an apparently ordinary door where a lone sentinel was posted as sentry, and grimaced when the sound of the winds raging against the iron and steel barricade. The elements were in fury today, indeed.

"I am going to see the Lord Commander." It was more of a tradition to announce it, because Maric Seaworth and his interlocutor, a massive bulky Northerner named Jonos Kark-Umber, knew very well no one was going outside right now without a very good reason, in general patrolling or whatever duty required of them.

"Of course Dawn Captain. Please be careful, Torrhen's patrol said it had started to snow when they came back half an hour ago."

"Formidable." Grimaced Maric. "Please tell the kitchens to prepare my favourite hot chocolate? I think I'm going to need it badly when I come back."

The guardsman laughed and half-opened the door after bowing mockingly, and his superior in the Order of the Dawn rushed outside, trying to cross the large courtyard in a minimum of time.

However, once he had passed the colossal archway sculpted with a great stag, this good intention didn't last. The stone covering the courtyard was recovered by a large layer of frost, and running or rushing the progression was only going to result in a dolorous backside after the long and humiliating glide was over.

And of course it was snowing. A lot. Not metres of snow right now, but the snowflakes were progressively covering all the ground, the arcades, the roofs, the towers and the statues in the fort. Looking east towards the woods, everything was white and the sky was so grey and low it was more and more difficult to perceive anything. No need to turn the head west in direction of the Frostfangs: the mountains were notoriously cloudy even at the best of times, and in these conditions the best watchers could see absolutely nothing.

 _We're going to be busy once this little snow episode is over. And the veterans in our ranks say this is just a summer snow..._

The main tower where the majority of the troops lived and the tower of the Lord Commander were not far apart, but with the snow and the ice...well, everything was slower. And for the patrols of the day charged to ensure the area surrounding the fortress, it was a freezing and tiring endeavour.

But this was their duty as soldiers of the Order of the Dawn. A duty never better symbolised than the statue positioned twenty metres to face the entire courtyard. The men had decades ago nicknamed it the Grim Justice. According to the records of the South, it had been a gift of Queen Cassana I Baratheon centuries ago, to celebrate the inauguration of the citadel Maric was currently walking on.

The Order of the Dawn had accepted the gift, though the rumours said a few Westerners of the time had petitioned to create a statue of their Saint Tyrion for the occasion instead. Therefore the fortress had been named in the honour of the long-dead King having fought and died for the Dawn in the Battle of the Last Alliance. Stannis Baratheon, the King Who Bore the Sword, the Last Unifier, the Iron-Breaker.

The statue was old now, and had been renovated twice in the last century. Fort Stannis had been built over six hundred and fifty years ago, a decade after what the maesters and the historians had both agreed to name the Last Dark Crusade, and the statue had been commissioned shortly after that date. Despite this, an expression of the realistic stonework always emanated a sort of stern vigilance, the Valyrian sword Blackfyre being represented laying in the hands of the Storm King. A lot of things had been said about the statue, some of it blatantly untrue. But everyone knew what this monument to an ancient monarch represented. Like King Stannis before them in the Second Long Night, the Order of the Dawn guarded the realms of men...and since they were positioned at Fort Stannis, it meant guarding the Dread Pass, the northernmost of the passages leading to the Lands of Always Winter and the Great Enemy. The Arya Fort, the Tyrion Fort and the Slayer Fort completed the series of fortifications no inhuman enemy had managed to ever breach in the Long War.

Maric mounted the marches and knocked against the heavy doors of the Command Tower. Another guard rapidly opened the door, this ironwork being much, much more recent than the fortress, given that it had been replaced last year after a particularly violent storm. Now there was an armoured fist-shaped knocker and the noise emitted was far less grinding.

Rapidly saluting the troops waiting in the lower levels, the young Captain got rid of his outer layer of clothes in a cloakroom and then began the long ascension to the office of the Lord Commander. The climb was naturally breath-exhaustive, with one hundred and seventy marches in all, with only pale lanterns to lighten the rough and ancient stairs. It was one of the places which made often the newcomers lament how Fort Stannis was obsolete in the current age of military technology...a fortress built when heroes walked the earth, Princess Arya Stark finished her hunt of the Others Beyond-The-Wall and all the battles were fought with swords and spears. The people thinking this citadel was not worth the maintenance tended to be disconcerted when they were showed the multiple underground basements where hundreds of cannons waited, completely out of reach of the cold and the snow.

In centuries before, men pretended this type of narrow and technical passages had been conceived to slow the progression of a wight assault, the walking corpses being infamous for their absence of equilibrium, tactics and intelligence. Nowadays, grinning old veterans pretended it was made to test the stamina of the young generation. In Maric's opinion, the stairs served well in the two roles.

 _Well, we haven't seen an Other attack in three hundred years, but best not to get totally complacent._

Finally the climb was over and a large corridor came into view, with the large door being guarded by two guards in their best uniforms...by the looks of it, they were completely bored and looking forwards the end of their service. At least they were in a relatively warmth place, as the chimney not far from their current position vigorously attested.

"He's waiting for you, Maric. Try not to ruffle him, eh?" Said the grey-haired woman on the left, while the other knocked on the door to warn the master of Fort Stannis his visitor had arrived.

"One time and they never let you live it down..." Protested dramatically the Stormlander-born Captain before entering and face the highest-ranked officer of Fort Stannis.

Lord Theo Glover had his attention plunged into a very voluminous pile of papers when Maric entered. Which confirmed the saying that no matter the rank, the greatest enemy of humanity was paperwork, not the Others.

"Ah, Captain, I have news for you."

No one was ever accused the Lord Commander of being a slim man reflected Maric. Born in one of the multiple cadet branches of the House having once governed Deepwood Motte, Theo Glover was built like a bull, with his arms bigger than his legs and a short neck. With his large beard, he looked very much like a supporter of the Free Folk Renewal Party...except he was one of the finest tacticians this side of the Walls and had been elected with eighty per-cent of the vote at the last general election thanks to his peerless tactical skills. It had been six years ago...and so far the Order of the Dawn had found absolutely no reason to complain.

Sitting at the invitation of his superior on a chair that paled to the massive and soft seat used by Lord Commander Glover, Maric tensed. News, not 'good news' had been announced. The Northerners had no real inclinations for the type of politics agitating the South at the moment, but this did not mean they had not their own subtle ways to influence a conversation.

"The new tanks for your armoured company have finally been found, or so the Queen in the North informed me in her last letter."

"This is very welcome news, Lord Commander."

When Maric had arrived six months ago after his Oath at the Bloody Gate, it had been in command of the 15th Dawn Mechanised...a formation which unfortunately had plenty of enthusiastic soldiers but no modern machines worth of the name. And under these latitudes, out of the question to use the influence the Seaworth name opened in the South! Storm tanks and all those built south of the Trident had an annoying habit of breaking down when the temperatures went under minus twenty...which happened every week or so at Fort Stannis.

As a result, battle tanks had to be 'requested' from the Kingdom of the North...and until then the 15th Dawn Mechanised, a formation recruited in the Storm and Northern kingdoms had been forced to wait and train with the cavalry-the old-fashioned one with two ears and four legs- or the artillery.

"The engines and the technicians are currently on their way to the Walls by ship."

"Do we know for how long the engineers and technicians have signed?"

This was a critical part of the oaths and every man and woman at Fort Stannis knew it. The Order of the Dawn had imposed since the great reforms having officially modified the status of the Night's Watch a minimal service period of three years, although the average period was somewhere between four and five, and could go as long as ten for a single oath.

It was less than the Order of the Eternal Flame or the Order of the Burning Sword which defended the Slayer Fort; it was more than the Order of the Dwarf Triumphant, traditionally posted on the Tyrion Fort.

"According for this letter, five years."

 _I_ _wonder what Queen Lyanna is going to want in exchange...oh well. For my four and a half years of service we will have working tanks and the men to repair them. It's worth a few concessions I suppose._

"Our brothers and sisters of the other Orders in the Vale Free Kingdom and the Storm Kingdom have plenty of recruits this year, and we ourselves have nothing to complain in the North, the Republic of the Riverlands and our outposts south of the Blackwater Rush."

"There are rumours we might see Imperials and Braavosi again in the next months."

Theo Glover guffawed with large moves of his hands.

"I see the rumour mill is as efficient as it was in my days! Yes, it has been talked about, though no one is suggesting for the moment to deploy dragons or aeroplanes anywhere near Fort Stannis. I trust there won't be any problem if it won't be the case."

Maric shrugged.

"I can't speak for anyone in the Fort but I won't hate an Essossi for his loyalties. The Four-Years Stalemate has been over for thirty years, after all, and I think we can forget our differences around a tankard of wine or two."

"Good answer Captain! But the problem isn't with our friends of the East."

"The issue is with the Oldtown Theocratic Levellers then?"

"Touché. I just had an unpleasant reading before you arrived." The Lord Commander made a powerful snort.

"Their representative apparently spoke this series of imbecilities in front of our garrison at the Shadow Tower."

The scar-covered hand of the Lord Commander handed a paper leaf to Maric, who took it and started to read high loud. Frowning, the second son of Lord Amaros Seaworth almost refused to believe the words he pronounced.

"Hundreds of years have passed since the Second Long Night. The fire of a heretic God flickers...the weight and shame of oaths forced by threats and steel are done. The phantoms of the Others and their wights are behind us, no longer of any relevance. It is a new age, a strong age of Faith and humanity supremacy. No longer will our loyal men serve with heretics and schismatic heathens anymore. With the Smith forging our mighty weapons, the Father guiding us and the Warrior leading us into battle, our foes will be faced and swiftly defeated. Our security will never be threatened again, because there is no challenge save the heresy in the hearts of men. The Long Night is long gone and the human race will never be brought on the brink of extinction again..."

The rest of the page was the same madness repeated over and over again.

For a man bearing the Seaworth name like Maric, it was absolutely sickening to see.

For the first time in over six hundred years, a nation had officially foresworn the ancestral Oath sworn at Duskendale, and the fact nearly everyone in Westeros had seen it coming did not make the blow more acceptable.

 _Not to mention the real reasons no man of this 'nation' will ever send his citizens northwards again for a long time. During the last decade their contribution has never ceased to decline, but if suddenly they decide to keep all their troops at home..._

Lord Theo Glover had apparently arrived at the same reasoning. The Lord Commander of the Order of the Dawn rose from his comfortable seat and watched towards the window the snow falling from the placid grey clouds.

"War. War never changes."

"But Hope remains."


	113. The First Rampart

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Lands of Always Winter, the Wall or the dragons.

 **Author's note:** Happy New Year! No this story is not over. The last update and this one are the chapters making the transition between arc 1 and arc 2. Afterwards, we will go back to the usual historic story-telling...

Master-Xavier: He didn't read the chapters in two hours! Just the last couple and he answered the questions. Like a certain author is doing right now that I think about it...

I don't plan for the second arc to be as long as the first...though given how it started, my certainty is not exactly of one hundred per-cent.

X59: Continuation of the past, with the aftermath of the Long Night, the decades which follow with the heroes growing old and new issues and discoveries entering the political minefield. All a program...

Paul: The partition of the Westerlands is going to be detailed in the next chapter, so you will have to wait next week for an answer.

Good remark about Justin Massey...that says yes, he is still going to have his importance for the post-war era...I am far from being short on twists.

thepkrgmc: Yes, hopefully(grin).

skipper 1337: Of course not, there were already the Others, the Shai'tans, the beings hunting in the jungles of Sothoryos...there are many species on Planetos, and mankind is just the most numerous.

The dragons are very real.

Sandor is the First Citizen so he's not in a hurry to marry, but given the dynastic tendencies of Westeros, it might be needed.

The Others are indeed the greatest motivation humanity has to respect the Oath...as long as they're in the vicinity, no man or woman will open his or her mouth to demand the dismantlement of the diverse Orders guarding the northern frontiers...

yesboss21: Thanks! I have stopped at Avatar the Legend of Aang, so I will take you up to your word here.

 **The First Rampart**

"Please Captain. What exactly are we supposed to do here?"

This point had been evidently gnawing at the soldier named Sebastien Fellstorm for several hours.

"Doing our job?" Tried a laughing veteran in his back.

Maric answered this question by a grunt. One move of his shovel later, and a relatively tiny quantity of snow was sent away from the road leading to Fort Stannis. All the men knew very well why they were trying to pull metres of snow away from the only road leading to Fort Stannis. All the snow blowers were down to maintenance, and the Lord Commander had decided tankmen unable to use their machines could be used to more profitable tasks.

 _Only a few thousands more shovels, and tanks will be able to pass...if it doesn't snow in the next days of course._

"Doing our job? You know when I came to the recruiting station at Fellwood, I saw myself leading a glorious tank charge again enemies of humanity."

 _Ah, the glory of the newspapers and the radio shouting the merits of the Order of the Dawn. Someone should inform them we aren't currently planning to launch an offensive in the Lands of Always Winter...all the gods worshipped in Westeros and Essos know how the last one ended._

Maric saw his fellow Stormlander spitting southwards...sign that the climate was definitely clement that day, the water thrown out of the mouth didn't freeze before touching ground.

"Well, we are the First Rampart." Affirmed the young Seaworth officer with a touch of irony. "This includes being the first rampart against the avalanches and the snowfalls of the Frostfangs."

"Funny that. I didn't read it in the job description, Captain!"

It was not in the job description, but it was a vital task nonetheless for everyone living Beyond-the-Walls. Should an unexpected event demanding the mustering of an expeditionary happened, it would be in the interest of all Westeros that the military forces were not bogged down by unfavourable terrain.

Maric sighed.

 _Here we go again for an Umber moment..._

The largest men in the company, Osric and Ulfric, had adopted a lot of expressions in their misadventures through the forests Beyond-the-Wall...and for that matter the kingdoms south of the Walls too.

"If we couldn't take the joke..."

"Yeah! We shouldn't have joined, yeah!"

"You've heard the rumour of yesterday?" Guffawed Osric, throwing more snow away from the road...and directly in the face of Sebastian Fellstorm.

"Hey!" Protested the most recent addition to the 15th Dawn Tankmen.

"Sorry, sorry. Didn't see you, brother." Sing-sung Osric, in a tone which fooled no one.

"We heard half a hundred rumours yesterday from headquarters. Whose are you referring to?" Asked Kavel Dorver, a solidly-built Northerner born in White Harbor.

"The one where we're going to receive reinforcements."

"Ah, that one." Answered with a sigh his superior officer, sending more and more snow out of the way.

Fort Stannis in the present month was the headquarters of two infantry regiments, two artillery formations -it was better to call them half-regiments- and the 15th Dawn Tankmen which was present in company strength. The Kingdom of the North had contributed for the 1st Dawn Regiment, which was mainly infantry recruited in the surroundings of Stonewatch, and the 3rd Dawn Regiment, the artillery from for Brandon's Triangle in the Barrows. The 2nd Dawn Regiment was the Storm infantry from Tarth, and the 4th Dawn Regiment was the artillery furbished by the Marchers of Wyl.

Combined with Maric's own tanks, the combined force should have perhaps around six thousand men. It was hardly a great army, and regular army divisions of whatever Westerosi realm would significantly outnumber them.

 _That said, we haven't exactly the space to welcome tens of thousands more men..._

Looking at the five sturdy towers in the distance, it was clear the northernmost citadel of the Order of the Dawn had not been built with artillery and gunpowder weapons in mind. But what some veteran regulars tended to forget was that it had not been built for large forces too.

The successive builders and engineers had managed to gain space by digging kilometres of tunnels into the nearby mountain, but empty space remained a luxury even today.

It was one of the reasons why half of the Order of the Dawn's manpower was still concentrated in various locations between Fort Stannis and the Walls...well that and the logistical problems to supply such a large force at the very edge of the human realms.

"Unfortunately, the Lord Commander didn't see fit to confide with me." Maric paused an instant to catch his breath before pushing more snow out of the way. "Did your source mention what sort of reinforcements were on their way?"

"My source did not." Grinned Ulfric Umber. "But I saw Colonel Darkstark coming out of the Lord Commander's tower fuming in anger."

There were many snickers and laughter after that affirmation, and by its speaker's wide smile, this had been the goal researched.

Colonel Elena Darkstark was the commanding officer of the 1st Dawn Regiment and the second of Lord Commander Glover at Fort Stannis. In her early thirties, the Colonel was young for her rank but her family name and her impressive skills were far more enough to silence any interrogation how she had arrived to her present position. Dark hair, grey eyes, a slim and athletic figure...many suitors had already proposed her in marriage, including some of the soldiers and officers inside Fort Stannis.

Unfortunately, the descendant of the legendary Princess Arya Darkstark had also the infamous and terribly violent temper of her line. Lovers were accepted to warm her bed at night. A husband definitely wasn't. Over a platoon in numbers had gone to the infirmary heal their bruises after they didn't move fast enough away from the irate Colonel.

One of the most polite declarations in the ranks of the garrison was that the generals serving the Queen in the North had wanted to avoid a general mutiny when they sent her here as an officer for the Order of the Dawn.

The most vocal treated the Darkstark woman of 'direwolf bitch'...that said the insult had kind of backfired since the Colonel's pet had been brought here.

 _I swear this direwolf is going to reach the size of a Shadowcat tank one day..._

'That doesn't narrow the field too much...Darkstark dislikes everybody but Northerners!" Groaned one of the tankmen remaining anonymous in the work group.

"Hey, guys. Torrhen saw something."

Maric abandoned momentarily the repetitive task of throwing snow elsewhere than in the road when five of his men slowly progressed towards a nearby hill, abandoning their snow-removal efforts.

 _Well we aren't going to do enough to content the Lord Commander this evening. Best to prepare to a remonstrance..._

Torrhen had been the skinchanger assigned to the 15th Dawn Tankmen. Bonded with a magnificent golden eagle, there was no doubt in the officers this magic-gifted young man was a precious asset in the role of sentinel. In these frozen regions where planes couldn't land anywhere, every person having been trained in the supernatural was a big help. There were only eight of them at Fort Stannis after all, and all men knew at least the whispers of a battle where sorcerers had turned back the tide of a lost battle.

That said, the average skinchanger tended to be a bit more eccentric and easy to distract than the average recruit. It would not be the first time Torrhen had sent them on a wild wolf's chase...and it would surely not be the last.

 _Still, the men should know better to stop their tasks just because Torrhen is distracted_ , thought Maric as one by one the rest of the company deserted their posts and let their shovels fall on the ground.

"He found something? What? A frozen giant in the ice?" Demanded Ulfric Umber.

"Nope, something way better!" Replied Wullard 'Iron-Drinker', one of the ferocious clansmen living close to the Ancient Gift, once the majority of the company included Maric had progressed far enough on the hill. "Look!"

The arm pointed in direction of a small mountain. Vickard's Fall, if Maric was not mistaken. At first, there was not much to look on except the snow, the ice and the usual landscape of the Frostfangs, and Maric frowned at the prostrated form of Torrhen guarded by the Dawn soldiers charged to be his bodyguards for the day. But then exclamations sounded. On a rock at the base of Vickard's Fall, a great white direbear was crouched, taking a sun bath and abandoning for a moment the role of fearsome predator to take a rest.

And near one of the greatest predators of the glacial lands, there were three small silhouettes. Most men took their binoculars and the spectacle they saw through them didn't disappoint.

"Are they?"

"Yes, yes, look at them..."

Three small direbear-cubs, perhaps one year old at most, were racing and playing in the snow around the adult which only could be their mother. Somersaults, rolls and pursuit races around the sleeping mother were the main activities of the young direbears...amusement was definitely the order of the day.

"Beautiful."

"It's rare we see them near Fort Stannis. The weather must be truly atrocious westwards."

Various heads carefully nodded, not leaving the white animals' moment of fun from their attention.

"Perhaps. Another blizzard you think?"

"Possibly. Or the mother descends southwards to search more food. Three babies need a lot of food after all."

Better hope for another event rather than a blizzard. If the ice storms came, this was going to play hell with the next planned exercise the Lord Commander had wanted to organise with the other Orders. Alas, Maric knew that the elements were not subjected to mere mortals' hopes.

"Captain we should begin to turn back. The hour is quite advanced and Fort Stannis is not next door..."

"You're right." The Stormlander Captain threw a last glance at the careless cubs before putting back the binoculars in their bag and giving the order of the march. Torrhen's moves signalled the skinchanger had fully regained consciousness, fortunately.

That said...they were definitely clouds massing northwards. Clouds which hadn't been there when they had watched the direbears minutes ago.

 _A blizzard. Maybe. The Lord Commander is not going to be happy. In this weather reinforcements and exercises will be impossible._

On the other hand, Lord Commander Glover and everyone down to the lowest newcomer knew the weather was the harshest enemy when you came near Fort Stannis. Nine days out of ten, not taking the most elementary precautions the Order taught you when you went out in the wilderness was sufficient to ensure you never came back alive.

In spite of being there for one year, Maric had already himself found the bodies of three men who had died in these circumstances...the only consolation you could offer in a letter after such demise was that their funeral pyre had been large.

 _And that there are no more Others close to raise them as wights..._

"The holidays of this year's end are going to be joyous, no?" Asked Wullard. "All around a good fire, without the fear the Lord Commander will send us outside!"

"Careful Wullard! Old Fist might take you to your word and send you in a storm!" Snickered a Northerner at the rear of the column.

Contrary to one inexperienced Southerner, the travel back to the Fort was not a pleasant endeavour. The snow itself had partially melted under this sun, and the stability of the ground, even when a man walked upon the road, was very subject to caution. But as the sun rapidly ceased to lighten the vast white landscape, the gates were not far from their actual location.

"Okay, we are..."

A large shadow passed over the company, and for an instant Maric thought it was another joke from one of the skinchangers. It was not like it was the first time they had regrouped their forces to use their birds at the same time in a coordinated fashion.

But one look in the sky was enough to crush this idea. The wings of the aerial newcomer were far greater than any bird living in the northern steppes.

Red scales, shining in the setting sun.

A large tail. A maw big enough to swallow the adult direbear they had seen today with plenty of space left. Claws sharp to tear apart dirigibles and the earlier aerial war machines in one strike.

An earth-shaking roar making the humans always remember how tiny they were against the power of magic and fire.

Dragon.

"So that's why Darkstark was angry..." Whispered Osric.

A large column of fire was exhaled by the flying lizard. Sparkles and an impressive red aura burst around the dragon and its rider, for an instant creating a miniature sun as it passed over Fort Stannis.

 _And its rider is a powerful spellcaster. Marvellous._

"Is that a nice present of year's end for you, Wullard?"

"You bet Captain! By the Old Gods I always wanted to see a dragon!"


	114. Shadows of Gold

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the Westerlands, the Iron Islands and the North.

X59: Thanks! I won't reveal anything about the future save indeed there's a certain Darkstark/Imperial rivalry...like direwolves and dragons, the pack against the flying lizard.

Paul: I was not sure at the beginning, but writing it was a likeable change of pace and I was lacking in inspiration for anything else.

Storm: I read sometimes fanfiction about Code Geass, yes. Read the first manga, but was caught on other things. Maybe I should find time again for it...

thepkrgmc: You don't want much, do you? Wildfire power plants...if one of those explodes, goodbye Westeros...

yesboss21: For the moment, Lightbringer is by Queen Ygritte's side at the Eyrie. The skirmishes the Order of the Dawn faces are mostly human renegades living Beyond-the-Walls. There are always criminals and deserters, and some are really dangerous. Yeah, in the future and for that matter by the present, the Giants are gone and the Children are not far from it.

DalysanneSnow: Thanks for the support and the reviews! Viserion is still on Dragonstone as a wild dragon for now. Jon Snow's official title now is 'Prince Consort'.

 **Shadows of Gold**

 **Rebuilding the Kingdoms Part I**

" _This knight was one of the greatest heroes of this age. While famous warriors fought one war and did not see its end, Ser Brynden participated in the five great conflicts of his time...a mighty trout indeed_." Lord Tytos Blackwood on Ser Brynden Tully, 304AC.

" _Who would have imagined that ten years ago? House Lannister and so many others disappeared from the Westerlands maps.._." Anonymous Riverlord, 306AC.

" _We need to ensure there will be no third Greyjoy Rebellion. Ever_." Lord Jason Mallister, 304AC.

" _At Ashemark they look to the past despite the follies it brought. At Crakehall, they look to the future despite its perils. And at the Rock they look to the Halfman. I admit I prefer the option that involves wine and willing wenches_." Anonymous Westerner, 312AC.

The year 304 after Aegon's Conquest commenced in a rather sombre tone for House Tully and the Kingdom of the North and the Trident, as Ser Brynden 'Blackfish' Tully held his last breath in the ancestral castle of Riverrun. The veteran of the Ninepenny King's War had never recovered from the terrible blow inflicted by the Night's Queen, and in the last moons the only thing which could be done had been to alleviate his suffering and summon his loved ones. At his funeral the Blackfish's body was put in a boat and sent down the Red Fork under the eyes of thousands of grieving spectators. King Robb Stark, Queen Val, his nephew Lord Edmure, Lord Tytos Blackwood, Lord Jason Mallister, Lord Wendel Manderly and Lord Marq Piper were the seven persons to set down Brynden for his final travel. Lord Edmure Tully threw the fire arrows setting the sails aflame, none missing. Under a windless and sunny sky, the funeral pyre went away, continuing eastwards until the last ashes were dispersed in the current. As per his wishes, the fortune the Blackfish had gathered in his life went to the construction of a village north-east of Riverrun. The village, which was rapidly called Blackfish's Ride, still exists today.

Once the funerals and the period of mourning were done, the politics of the rebuilding and the new lordships to be formed came back with a vengeance. Nearly every issue had been settled for the North, the Trident and the Eastern Marches, but it left the Iron Islands and the partitioned Westerlands to divide. The spoils of war created by the civil war were going to be put in order.

The first marking point pronounced by the young Stark King was the new allegiance of the Iron Islands. Given that there was a Greyjoy sleeping in the indomitable fortress of Casterly Rock, many lords led by Lord Jason Mallister had huge objections to any Western control over the former Ironborn lands. But perhaps advised by his wife, King Robb adopted a policy of divide and conquer. House Harlaw and House Blacktyde, which controlled by then the overwhelming majority of the intact granaries and forts, would swear their allegiance to Winterfell. Great Wyk however would be sworn to the Paramountcy of the Western Marches led by House Marbrand. Old Wyk and Orkmont would pay taxes and give oaths to House Mallister of Seagard. With Saltcliffe in the process of being transformed into a Reacher penal colony, the Northerners and their allies clearly ensured there would be no 'third Ironborn Rebellion' or something similar in the next decade.

On the subject of the new frontiers, the outcome could have been worse for the former Paramountcy of the Westerlands. The Golden Tooth had been given to the Riverlands and House Lefford was united for a generation with House Tully and the large swath of land between Crakehall and Silverhill was now forming the Western Free Republic, but given the magnitude of the losses suffered under House Lannister, the nobles and the knights of the West admitted King Robb Stark could have showed far more cruelty in his parcelling.

But if there was one point the Westerners had many reasons to lament, it was the numbers of deaths suffered by highborn and smallfolk alike. The West had certainly not been close to rival the Reach in terms of population before the War of the Eight Kings erupted, but it had been a populated province. Not so much in 304AC, and the men and women at the top had been very close indeed from annihilation.

Algood, Lannister of Casterly Rock, Broom, Crakehall, Serret, Spicer, Farman, Estren, Falwell, Farman, Ferren, Foote, Hawthorne, Kenning, Moreland, Peckledon, Plumm, Sarsfield, Sarwyck, Stackspear, and Yarwyck. All these Houses had lost their last members, been expulsed from their fortresses by various armies or were missing due to the confusion of the many battles having raged during several years. Half of the Knightly Houses had been exterminated in the monumental bloodshed (a number many historians put as high as four hundred knights names destroyed), and the status of the other half was highly dubious. Clifton, Swyft, Greenfield, Ruttiger and Yew were names known in the Riverlands and the Reach during King Robert's reign, but these followers of the Seven were gone and would never come back.

There had already been confirmations at the Great Council of Duskendale and before. Lady Asha Greyjoy and Lord Podrick Payne were married and kept Casterly Rock as their House's citadel, with control over the Paramountcy of the Rock. Lord Addam Marbrand was to become Lord of Ashemark and Lord Paramount of the Western Marches. Lady Joy Lannister had been given Lannisport. Lord Tristifer Botley and his red-headed wife continued to administer the rebuilding of Castamere.

For the rest of the disputed claims and demands, the highborn and lowborn requests had to wait the arrival of the King and the Queen. Thankfully for the royals, the smaller levels of population translated in a smaller number of lords and knights to nominate. Because the task was already a titanic one. Dozens of lords had to be confirmed or found for the Westerlands, several scores of knights and four great lords for the ruined Iron Islands.

House Drox's lands had been ravaged by diverse band of sellswords and their castle had been very thoroughly sacked. As nearly two hundred of their men had gone fight the Others (and nine out of ten died in the bargain), Lord Lambert Drox as the only survivor of his line was granted the island of Fair Isle, with the rights and income going with the title. Lord Lambert Drox took the House name of Westguard to celebrate the change.

Given House Karstark prominent role in subduing the Westerlands, Torrhen Karstark received the lordship of Kayce left unoccupied by House Kenning's demise. The second son of the deceased Lord Rickard was far from the only Northerner to be granted an important position. Alyn Blackwood received the Crag, marrying Jeyne Westerling, last Heiress of this castle. Lomard Woolfield became the new Master of Wyndhall, House Estren's fortress. Ethan Forrester gained Sarsfield and Gendry Waters, one of the survivors of the Winterfell siege, was commanded to rebuild Tarbeck Hall, eventually gaining the nickname 'Builder' and the minor lordship of the place. Many River second or third sons received villages or outposts to rule over, slowly restoring a measure of normalcy and peace in these ravaged areas.

In other circumstances, the arrival of so many foreign lords and knights to replace the Western nobility would have been met by a general rally of the banners and a long (and costly) insurrection against the monarch having the audacity to give such orders. After the fall of House Lannister and the Second Long Night, force was to conclude there was neither the will nor the strength left in any of the social classes of the Westerlands to oppose this. It was not like every House having benefitted from the rule of Lord Tywin was gone: Houses Bettley, Banefort, Brax, Doggett, Garner, Prester, Lydden, Marbrand and Myatt had seen their armies crushed but had enough men and resources to recover from this cataclysm.

Lord Quenten Banefort had been released two years ago from custody, as was the new Lord of Hornvale Tytos Brax. Lord Celion Lydden continued the line of his family at Deep Den, the underground fortress having not capitulated contrary to the Golden Tooth.

The Hamell and Jast families had survived but lost their possessions to the new Western Free Republic, but like House Drox their participation at the Bloody Gate was not left unrewarded. The Jast name was to be synonym from then on with the ownership of the Orkmont island, and the Hamells were thanked by the island of Great Wyk.

A lot of debates went afterwards on what to do with the other two islands of the Iron archipelago. Pyke had been the de facto capital of the Iron Islands for three hundred years per the status of Lord Paramount granted to the Greyjoy line. They were many veterans and coastal inhabitants who wanted this symbol of terror and reavings gone forever. Old Wyk was even worse, as it was the spiritual heart of the Drowned religion. The foundations of the Old Way and the Iron Price had been seeded there, and thousands of men, women and children wanted the bones of Nagga gone. Too much damage had been done by the pirates and the murderers in service of the Iron Kings. The resurgence of various Drowned Priests on the Cape of Eagles and Harlaw did not help the events to proceed in a calm manner. The men who pretended to be Aeron Greyjoy (or whatever reaver priest of legend) were massacred by bloodthirsty crowds.

Lady Asha Greyjoy argued a bit vehemently for her rights to Pyke, and House Glover, Banefort, Mallister and Mormont raised their voices in consequence. Following the example of Duskendale, a solution was found to disappoint everyone present at the table: the last Greyjoy would receive the castle of Pyke and its surroundings. The rest was to be divided between three Westerosi of very different background; Bennarion Botley for House Botley, Lyanna Mormont of House Mormont and Lommy Pie of House Pie (some historians found the implication of Princess Arya Stark in the latter nomination highly suspect).

On the other hand, there was no compromise possible for Old Wyk. The riots in the last months as the threat of White Walkers faded from the South proved the Drowned God supporters had not been as eradicated as it was thought. Given the atrocities committed during the great war, no one was willing to put his or her hopes up. Any person pretending to be a Drowned Priest or assuming the identity of a reaver was to be hung after an expedited trial. Any Ironborn caught worshipping the Drowned Priest was to be fined heavily. Should there be a second infraction, the sentence would be death or go to the North to fight the ice abominations. Old Wyk was to be razed, and no resettlement would be authorised before a hundred years had passed.

Passed conjointly with the Storm Kingdom (in fact many of these laws were harsher in the South, the Reachers often foregoing the trial and the Wall option) the ancestral religion of the Iron Islands would slowly die out. Or so it was hoped anyway. The Northmen, more than anyone else, knew how difficult it was to eradicate a religion. For all its Crusades and Wars of Faith, the men praying to the Seven had never managed to erase the Old Gods worshippers. Still, with two bloody and complete defeats, Lady Asha converting in 306AC to the Old Gods (an act which was said to cause a lot of near-fatal heart attacks amongst the priests of every religion who heard of it) and the not-subtle threat of the Riverlands enforcers to break the old habits, the estimates were optimistic. No one was willing to bank on the new Ironborn and their descendants becoming completely sane, but perhaps for the next decades they would have reasonable leaders commanding on the islands.

The Western Free Republic provoked from the start far more headaches than the Drowned Religion and the attributed lordships combined. By the principle itself of the new nation, there was to be no more nobles and knights in this part of Westeros. First Citizen Sandor 'the Hound' Clegane, his wife Kalya (a fiery outlaw renowned for her skill with a crossbow) and the surviving Brotherhood of the Hound were extremely vocal on this point. The highborn thus were deprived of their castles, their vast hunting grounds, their mines and all the properties they had exploited the smallfolk of the Westerlands during decades. In the new republic, the merchants, artisans, outlaws and peasants cheered enthusiastically as it provided them new opportunities for a better and more prosperous life. But on the other side of the frontiers, the new lords were overworked by the constant stream of removed cousins, half-brothers and bastards demanding audience. Houses Crakehall, Serret, Swyft, Greenfield, Plumm and scores of highborn families had been robbed of their lands, and now they demanded compensation by new titles and honours benefitting their (supposed) ranks. As the North had been at war with the Houses in question for the next best thing to two years, it didn't speak highly of their intelligence. There was more sympathy shown in the Reach, but the destruction and the empty coffers showed there too the limits of generosity. Appeals to war by enraged septons (who were highborn themselves) were ignored. The Western Free Republic was here to stay, but dangerous movements formed in secret, waiting for an opportunity to strike and restore their lost greatness. For now, the new lords and masters of the West could console themselves their situation was far less 'interesting' than what happened in Dorne or Volantis...


	115. Settling the Bankruptcy

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own Volantis, House Targaryen or Essos in general.

Paul: House Turnberry...let's say they are destroyed. I knew there were one or two households I had forgotten.

Glad you liked the Blackfish's funeral. It is likely the Lefford name will reappear in the next generation, if Edmure manages to have more than one child. I think there were several knights with the Clifton name. The Westerlands branch is extinct, the other may have survived. Sorry for the Farman repeat.

Jeyne's brother died during the Second Long Night in the clashes of the final battle. Unfortunately for them, so many great warriors died that day their demises were half-forgotten by the history books.

At the moment no one is living at Pyke castle. Of course, Asha hopes to rebuild it in time, it's her family seat...but circumstances and the dark destruction may force her hand in the end.

Yes, Hot Pie took the name of his deceased friend.

Asha is not the most enthusiastic Old God followers, but she didn't want to worship R'hllor or the Faith for several reasons, and the risk of being judged a heretic are fairly low amongst the Northerners.

X59: The 'Lannisters' being given back Lannisport is no grand gesture. The new young Lady is a legitimised bastard, while there were some members of the Lion cadet branches waiting in the wings. In short, it's more Robb and Val doing some appeasement towards the common folk and the rest of the refugees, telling them it's safe to come back.

thepkrgmc: Well, Sandor is never going to have Puritan values...so he will be definitely more on the Washington's side(grin).

JediMasterDraco: Could be. Direwolves and dragons are known to have tempers, and the same is true for their bonded...

Tinithor: Thanks for the comment! That said real military campaigns are rarely decided in one big, critical battle and more in months of marches and counter-marches...

DalysanneSnow: Yep! Come on I have to make sure the readers will be eager to watch the next chapter...

 **Settling the Bankruptcy**

 **The Targaryen Empire Part I**

" _Life expectancy of a man who can't repay his debts in Volantis today: fifteen turns of hourglass_." Anonymous banker last words, 303AC.

" _If you want one day to rebel, don't follow this example_." Common Essossi saying on the Volantene Rebellion, 309AC.

" _Dragons. You need dragons to govern such a large empire_." Anonymous Essossi diplomat at the Great Council of Duskendale, 303AC.

The Southern coast of Essos inhabitants had never had the dubious privilege of watching a White Walker in the Second Long Night. And yet, when the weapons were sheathed and the bloodbath of the period finally ended, Volantis and all the cities present in the area reported a lot of devastation and wanton destruction. Far more than the war against the Mother of Dragons and the rebellion of the Red Priests could be held responsible.

Part of this, the Volantenes had only themselves to blame. Following the departure of Queen Daenerys Targaryen for Westeros, many had hoped the general amnesties, the confirmation of the new Triarchs in power and the large rebuilding commanded would be enough to give birth to a new unity. The fortnights which followed proved the futility of these hopes.

The surviving scions of the Old Blood, the former slaves, the merchant class and the soldiers had certainly a lot of things in mind, but cohabitating with each other did not figure in the list. There were old grievances centuries-old in the ancient Freehold city. And a great number of these feuds had been reawakened or created in this tumultuous period. The new military authorities did what they could, but they could not be everywhere. The food was sufficient to avoid starvation, but there was not enough of it to stop former highborn complaining about 'better times'. And in the shadows, the assassins stalked their preys. Every night saw at least a couple of former slaves and their overseers die. Prestigious Old Blood families were poisoned by ambitious heirs. Great land-owners were found massacred in very compromising situations. The inheritance problems were dealt with in a permanent and violent manner.

Nevertheless many of the murderers did not get away with their crimes. At their discharge, a great number of very wealthy men and women were now officially bankrupt, making bribery and corruption of officials a bit difficult. To the bitter enmities of the ancient era was now added the will to survive economically and socially. Denunciations of the neighbours abounded from 301AC to 302AC, keeping the tribunals and all those having their jobs linked with justice extremely busy. As new houses and buildings grew from the ashes of ancient Volantis, the treasons and manipulations increased ten-fold.

This was the moment Triarch Aeros Soderro chose to conspire and plan a great coup. In itself, the idea was not very original: there were maybe hundreds or thousands men in Volantis having the same idea, with motives ranging from the vilest to the noblest. Where Aeros differed from the norm however, was not the fact the ambitious Volantene wanted to renounce the allegiance he had sworn to Queen Daenerys, but indeed his will to get rid of his two fellow Triarchs and so many of his opponents there would have been a mountain of corpses had he been allowed to achieve his goals.

Too bad for him, Aeros Soderro was not as intelligent as he believed himself to be. The vassal cities of Volon Therys, Valysar and Selhorys rather enjoyed their autonomy from the First Daughter of Valyria. The two other Triarchs had spies (and ambitions) of their own. The Freedmen and the Unsullied soldiers stationed in the city and who had the most to lose had many informers in their pay. One greedy member of the notoriously money-short Soderro grand family was all it took to unravel the scheme.

The counter-attack led by Triarch Malassos Borroro was vicious and ruthless. Leading a large crowd of men in the streets (the populace rapidly nicknamed them 'the Arrogant Tigers'), one of the ten most powerful notables of the city proceeded to arrest the maximum of conspirators named by his agents. Aeros Soderro refused however to stand down and be dragged in chains in front of the entire city. And unknown to the majority of the influential factions of Volantis, the traitor Triarch had made pacts with several remnants of the Sons of the Harpy and many groups wishing the annihilation of Targaryen authority. At several meeting grounds, the Volantene sellswords paid to arrest the Soderro supporters faced scores of crossbows, spears and swords that clearly shouldn't have been there at all. Aeros Soderro himself led several attacks on the garrisons having sworn allegiance to his rival.

As the clashes of weapons became worse day after day, the two Triarchs failed to grasp how exasperated the inhabitants became. What one decade ago would have been regarded as a private quarrel best settled in the hinterlands of the Dothraki Sea was now looked at very differently. It was a symbol how lamentable the Old Blood behaviour was. The common Volantene was not cheering for Soderro or Borroro; all these ambushes and counter-ambushes in the recently renovated alleys were fraying on the non-soldier nerves.

Worse, the two factions were roughly equal in military strength and unable to deal the other a fatal defeat in one blow. Aeros had slightly over four thousand men willing to fight for him, several hundred coming from his holdings along the Volaena river. At the same time, Malassos was drawing recruits and demobilised soldiers from the Disputed Lands. Borroro had more men to throw in the melee than Soderro, but not that many to the point victory was assured.

Knowing this struggle was their last chance to claim power beyond their wildest dreams, the two Triarchs made a lot of promises. To Unsullied Commander Day Wall the Soderro family promised three times his weight in gold. Malassos Borroro tried to buy the swords of five thousand men, principally Freedmen from Slaver's Bay and Valysar sworn swords, enticing them with a score of great elephants and priceless precious stones. All those bribery attempts were in vain. One or two lone swordsmen were promptly enrolling at such advantageous prices, but the majority were not that eager to rush and battle in the city they were supposed to defend, and their loyalty to Queen Daenerys was not that easy to break.

Who was a traitor and who was the loyal one in this conflict was by this point of the story a foggy issue. As far as the Targaryen infantry was concerned, it was two nobles vying for supreme power and the men loyal to the Mother of Dragons were doing their best to protect the lives of the citizens from all this agitation. The Sons of the Harpy were executed when they were caught in the open, and the same end was promised to the sellswords who dared walk in the light with bloodied weapons and the colours of one or the other belligerent.

To say this succession of murders and street battles interested the bankers and other money lenders was a perfectly accurate assessment. The Borroro and Soderro partisans had been officially bankrupt fortnights ago, and hiring hundreds of sellswords was not known to be cheap. Outside support would have explained part of these gold anomalies...except the rest of Essos was not enthusiastic in supporting anything which could provoke the wrath of a dragon. Moreover, Lys, Myr and Tyrosh were far too busy battling in the Disputed Lands to turn their attention elsewhere. Therefore, each day passing was seeing the two Triarchs fighting with the manipulation of negative numbers as well as sharp metal objects. The merchants and traders watched with the eye of the predator the debts of the Old Blood growing out of control. Exactly what the two nobles had been trying to achieve before was more and more an exercise of futility. Barred from the Black Walls quarters and for that matter of the majority of the rebuilt Volantene city quarters, Malassos Borroro and Aeros Soderro continued their struggle even as their subordinates were arrested and thrown in jail. Desertion augmented. Ultimately, a raid on an exotic animal store ended with Aeros Soderro trampled to death by an elephant after having tried to ride the majestic animal in order to escape a patrol of Freedmen.

His power base did not survive this humiliating demise. Like a well-maintained mechanism, the witnesses, the victims and the accusers emerged from nowhere to sue and demand compensation for the wrongs of the Soderro's private war. Arrests were multiplied by six or seven in the next days. Stores, ships, houses, warehouses, everything which might or might not have some value fell out the hands of its previous Volantene owners.

Judging the way the wind was blowing, Malassos Borroro and his inner circle of (decreasing) supporters were discussing what a great opportunity it was to lay down their arms peacefully when the news came. Queen Daenerys Targaryen had gone missing, and there was a great chance the Mother of Dragons would never come back. Two dragons were for all intent and purposes gone. The third was at Dragonstone and had no rider. In months before, any insurrection would have been crushed under a deluge of dragonfire. But with the Dragon Queen gone? A conventional army might just been enough to raise the banner of rebellion and independence.

The plans of many Old Blood dynasties for the next years were immediately scrapped. The absence of the dragons gave them the hope of returning to the pre-war situation, and this feeling overwhelmed the thoughts in their heads. For months those who had the blood of Ancient Valyria in their veins had been forced to speak to their servants and slaves as equals and partners. For too many, this new order had poisoned their very hearts. The liberation from the Targaryen Empire was not enough. The reestablishment of slavery and the restoration of all the laws forbidden by the Mother of Dragons...this was a good start. Next would be the eradication of the R'hllor cults and the very public executions of those having led the insurrections against their betters. A perfidious wind of folly permeated the higher classes. The will to grab each and every of their privileges back darkened the atmosphere. The Old Order had to come back, at any cost.

Malassos Borroro, self-proclaimed champion of the Old Blood, proclaimed himself Triarch of the Free Republic of Volantis...and it was the signal for the carnage to begin. Due to the contempt they viewed the population, few of the conspirators had any idea of the general mood of the population. The majority of the population, not the one or two per-cent having until 300AC confiscated over ninety per-cent of the wealth and riches of Volantis. Not everyone in the crowd loved Queen Daenerys Targaryen and her advisors. The conquests of Slaver's Bay and Volantis had hardly been the stuff including knights in shiny armour and roses. But compared to a return to slavery and a life of daily humiliations, beatings and unbearable chores...

Before the grand rebellion had really a chance to make progress, the Old Blood suffered a dire turn of misfortune. The third Triarch Saena Laenyr had long stayed in the background, a political choice many astute watchers had commented from top to bottom. The general opinion though, was that the woman was letting her rivals tire out before entering the battlefield.

This guess was deadly wrong. While the other Triarchs killed and weakened their enemy's influence in all aspects, Triarch Laenyr was sending her reports to Dragonstone. As the Great Council of Duskendale ended, Regent Missandei thus had an excellent idea how things stood at Volantis. The proclamation of the Empress abdication and the proclamation of the regency for young Vhaela Targaryen had been thoroughly organised leaks and no accident. Five major families had allied with the Triarch Saena. Together, they had temporarily excused themselves for the festivities...just as thousands of warriors coming from the upper Rhoyne delta and the Targaryen garrisons near Volantis massed outside the walls.

Malassos Borroro and his accomplices realised too late the scale of the trap they had just plunged into. Between all the rebellious factions, they had maybe seven or eight thousand men in arms to resist. A small army, and one which was completely overshadowed by the thirty-five thousand Targaryen troops waiting outside. Realising they had no chance, the generals of this improvised treachery were forced to order the retreat inside the Black Walls. The odds of separating Volantis from the Targaryen Empire were now null for them, but there was always the chance to keep their heads if the rest of the lands conquered by the Mother of Dragons went in flames.

These meagre hopes were cruelly dashed. Cities like Selhorys, Telos or Volon Therys had been berated for years by the Volantene Old Blood. Now that the iron boot was on the other side, the former servants and lesser partners had no wish to run to the rescue.

Moreover, the army outside refused to storm the Black Walls. Regent Missandei commands had been limpid; there was to be no rallying point for the contestation opposing the Empire. And Triarch Saena Laenyr obliged. Festivities were organised around the lightly-blockaded Valyrian citadel. Around the traitors, life in the city resumed its normal course. Mummers, buffoons and jugglers passed their time to ridicule the tyrants besieged in their own mansions. The Republic of Volantis was limited to the Black Walls and became an object of mockery and scorn. Several hundred sellswords deserted as the situation became more and more ridiculous.

The 'Republicans' were not starved to submission or anything like that. They were still merchants admitted inside the Valyrian seat of power...but given that this place was 'obviously' a foreign nation, the food purchases were made at grossly inflated prices. Similar actions came shortly after for everything a group of noble rebels.

This in turn prompted the North to send a very ironical letter to thank the rebellious Volantenes for the murder of Ser Jorah Mormont...but not much else. The Kingdom in the North's correspondence delivered a warning to never underestimate the wits of a woman at their own peril, but this the Triarch Malassos Borroro could only nod and sob in answer.

Still, the highborn in rebellion had no choice but to wait for the Regent to arrive and assist powerlessly to the destruction of their fortunes, piece by piece, treasure by treasure. The terms demanded for their capitulation were simply too hard to stomach. The Borrorro faction knew the opponents they faced in the Laenyr. They didn't know their new Regent. Ultimately, the choice was made to trust the foe they didn't know rather than the one they had lived along during months.

It was not the wisest decision ever. Concentrating so many troops in a single place was still costing a lot of money, no matter that the list of enemies was reduced after a new Dothraki purge near Selhorys. And Regent Missandei had the firm intention to compensate these losses, one way or another. At their first audience, the former Triarchs and his captains realised they should have taken the option allowing them to go in exile at Lys or Qarth. The conception of 'mercy' of their new ruler was to allow them to rebuild Astapor with their bare hands.

A particularly brave (or idiot, the maesters and historians are divided on that one) Volantene rudely replied the woman elevated by the Mother of Dragons had not the power of dragonfire to rain down upon her enemies. As a small roar echoed in the chambers, the most optimistic rebels realised how far off the target their estimations were...


	116. The Desert is a huge grave

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own Dorne, Sunspear or the dunes.

Paul: I think there will be a Yi-Ti, Volantis and religious chapter before that (not necessarily in that order mind you). Maximum four or five chapters before we go back to the North and the Dark Crusades...

True, Daenerys abdication is everything but normal. That said, politicians and law experts will always try to find words, regulations and explanation to sustain a system. And Essos has a long history with various political systems...

The Triarchs were swiftly released after for appeasement. Most of the citizens explained to the new authorities that they needed someone of the city to give orders, that the charges they had against them could also be brought against hundreds of men and women, and that it was way better to catch them in the act rather on mere rumours.

The 'return to slavery' idea was from Borroro himself, though there were plenty of his supporters who agreed with him.

Missandei want to rebuild Astapor because it is a strategic location to guard the eastern frontiers of the Empire, Meereen is still crowded with refugees and the Targaryen Empire needs more cities and public infrastructure projects to unify the new realm. There are other motives and actions of course.

X59: Indeed, indeed. The Old Blood scions have lived for so long at the top of the world it's properly unbearable for them to be relegated in the second ranks. And yes, the North thanked them...only to mock them. Zero popular support is not exactly the best way to start a rebellion.

thepkrgmc: Everyone is tired and those in power have the biggest army. The rapport of strength is not in their favour...

 **The Desert is a huge grave**

 **Shadows of Dorne Part I**

" _How many Southern Houses are gone? This war has cost us more lords and knights than all the ones fought by the Targaryens..._ " Lord Willas Tyrell, 306AC.

" _Some Dornish refuse to surrender. So be it, they will bend the knee in their graves..._ " Anonymous Stormlander, 305AC.

" _It's a desert. Nothing more to say_." Lord Creighton Dondarrion, 307AC.

" _Don't provoke a Sand Snake. You don't know how, but your death is going to be a long and unpleasant one_." Dornish advice, 305AC.

The White Walkers might have been banished beyond the great breach of the Wall and the Great Council of Duskendale decided the new frontiers of the former Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, but there was one part of the continent where the swords hadn't been put back in the armouries or over the chimney as decorations.

Dorne.

The Princedom bannersmen had suffered tremendous losses during the last battles of the Eight Kings' War. The conflict against the Others and the following civil war between the partisans of Arianne, Quentyn and Trystane Martell had not contributed to ameliorate the situation. Lord Dagos Manwoody, Lord Quentyn Qorgyle and Lord Franklyn Fowler had died at the Doom of Kings. Ser Gerold Dayne had perished in the battle of Starpike some fortnights after the massacre of Highgarden. Lord Olyvar Wyl was murdered in his bed when Lord Creighton Dondarrion retook the ancestral seat of Blackhaven. Lord Tremond Gargalen and Lord Daeron Vaith found their life ending at the Battle of the Four-Hills. Great Champions and brave warriors fell in the Battle of the Last Alliance.

The Dornish ruling House hadn't fared better. Most of the legitimate Martells, that was to say Prince Doran, his brother and two out of his three children were dead. Trystane Martell was an exile, and would stay this way for the rest of his life. The new Lady of Sunspear was Tyanna Martell, one of the twins Princess Arianne Martell gave birth to before dying.

Officially, the Dornish Civil War had ended with the capture of Ser Ryon Allyrion and his men on the Greenblood banks. The forces of Prince Trystane had laid down their arms and gone home. The foreign allies of Prince Quentyn had been destroyed or crossed back the Narrow Sea. The Dayne soldiers had crushed the levies of Sandstone, killing Lord Gulian Qorgyle and decimating his pikes. The Yronwood banners flew over the Hellholt. Every place of significant importance was occupied by men and women having sworn their loyalty to Queen Shireen.

And yet it wasn't over. The Dornish had always been considered stubborn and slow to realise when they were beaten. This conflict was no exception. Lord Gulian Qorgyle and Lord Harmen Uller were no more (the first having been pierced by a dozen lances and the other had taken a score of arrows in the chest), but their respective brothers Ser Arron Qorgyle and Ser Ulwyck Uller continued to wage an ambush-and-skirmish campaign in the dunes and the arid immensities of Dorne.

It wasn't limited to these two Noble Houses. House Wyl members had been annihilated by the Dondarrion offensive, but there had been enough armsmen and cavaliers to escape the rout and form a huge band of outlaws. The same was true for the former sworn swords of Gargalen, Vaith, Allyrion, Fowler and so on. The overwhelming majority of these men were no better in discipline and skill than the common brigand, but for a region in such dire condition as Dorne, they represented a bleeding of men and resources. The knights were forced to bolster the existing garrisons and send more reinforcements at a time the rest of the continent was taking a break to rebuild. The historians estimates were that between two and three thousand men at the worst of the depredations entered rebellion in one fashion or another.

Obviously, it didn't paint a good image of Dorne to the court of Storm's End. The last five or six centuries had been largely enough for the Marcher Lords, the Reach and the Stormlands to form extremely negative ideas about the inhabitants living in the far south, and the rumours of new atrocities did little to do change the general mood. Prisoners from one side or the other were quite often left to the mercy of the various snakes, scorpions and venomous animals hiding in the desert. Pikes, water poisoning and a lack of preparation to endure the extreme temperatures convinced many influential merchants and highborn that Dorne would be far more governable if every treacherous Dornish was sent immediately to the Seven Hells.

While Queen Shireen did not entertain this non-chivalrous proposition, the continued defiance of the rebels and the bloody settling of the civil war did massive harm to the Dornish influence in the Game of Thrones. During the Great Council of Duskendale, the Wyl lands had been annexed into the greater Stormlands. The castle of Wyl had been granted to Omer Blackberry, beginning the House of the same name. High Hermitage had been given back to House Dayne for their loyalty in these trying times.

Maybe if peace had returned, the punitive measures would have stopped there. Unfortunately, it didn't and Dorne was going to pay the price for it. The Storm Kingdom leading nobles had no intention to let the previous order stand in the Princedom. Not when maintaining it would mean continuous and sporadic rebellions for decades until a new dynasty emerged. Therefore the first measure, but not the most radical one, was to abolish the position of 'Prince' and 'Princess' for House Martell. Lady Tyanna kept the positions of Lady of Sunspear and Shield of Planky Town (or rather her Regent did until her coming of age), but the title forged in blood by Nymeria Martell was finally extinguished after a millennia.

As hunters dedicated to bring back the heads of the Uller and Qorgyle traitors commenced their searches, the division of Dorne continued through 304AC and 305AC. A new Paramountcy was created for Western Dorne, going from the west of the Torentine to the east of Skyreach domains. The Torentine March was the name given to it, and it would be ruled by House Dayne of Starfall and its lord Edric Dayne. Lady Allyria Dayne was given High Hermitage for her able service. Lady Larra Blackmont having stayed loyal, the House of Blackmont maintained their power and influence (many nobility supporters remarked how dramatic it was that few Dornish Houses ended unchanged from all these disasters). Mors Manwoody was pardoned and became the new Lord of Kingsgrave, marrying in 306AC Obara Sand after a combined offensive killing another bandit calling himself the Vulture King. Lady Jeyne Fowler was elevated to the Ladyship of Skyreach.

The only real question was what to do about the Qorgyle lands; twice a lowborn Stormlander was sent to command the military garrison, and twice the chosen officer died before reaching Sandstone, the Qorgyle resistance making a point to slay the potential usurper no matter the casualties incurred in the process (so many casualties no doubt accelerated the collapse of their insurrection). In the end, the marriage of Lord Edric Dayne and Jennelyn Fowler in 306AC convinced Lord Richard Horpe to let Starfall administer the Sandstone lordship until a second child of this union was old enough to take the lordship. It reinforced the power of House Dayne for the short-term, diminished the anger of the local smallfolk and saw the first taxes arrive to the coffers of Storm's End. Everyone in the game was relieved...except the last survivors of House Qorgyle of course, but no loyalist to the cause of Queen Shireen was very interested in their fate.

The Second Paramountcy to be carved out of Dorne was the region of the Boneway, although many Stormlanders labelled it 'Hell' as it gathered some of the worst landscapes for human survival, ranging from the Boneway and the annexed Wyl lands to the west of the Godsgrace territories. The prison-island Ghaston Grey was not included into this Paramountcy, and was administered directly by an officer of the Royal Navy from 305AC onwards. The prisoners of Dorne would from that moment be transported to the North or put into an island prison (not anywhere near the Stepstones: no one wanted to reinforce the aspirant pirates).

Still, the Boneway covered well over a third of Dorne (and perhaps as close to half) and the new rulers were going to gain an important influence in the Storm Kingdom. Unfortunately for House Martell, it was House Yronwood which was put in charge of the area, with Lord Anders becoming the first Lord Paramount of the Boneway. House Jordayne, House Wells, House Vaith (under a young cousin of the unlamented and very deceased Lord Daeron) and the resurrected House Dryland under legitimised Elia Dryland (the paramour of Prince Oberyn had made her rights known as the bastard daughter of Lord Uller).

The rest of Dorne not divided into the two other Paramountcies was renamed the Greenblood and the Martells would be its diminished governors. It was the wealthiest and most populated province of Dorne, but this was not a sufficient balm for the heart strokes several knights and lords felt. The fall from grace for those who had been ardent believers in the notion of an 'unbending Dorne' was horrible to watch from the top of the Lance Tower. Having Houses Santagar, Toland, Ladybright, Dalt and Allyrion as bannersmen was no consolation: all had lost members, seen their lands ravaged and their next generation die on a close or distant battlefield. Moreover Salt Shore needed a lord or a lady, because House Gargalen had left no known descendent in this world.

As Queen Shireen I, Queen Dowager Margaery, Hand of the Queen Richard Horpe, Ser Donnel Swann and several councillors did their best to rebuild and integrate Dorne from an external point of view, the rebellion continued. In appearance, the landless knights and those having rallied to them were stronger than ever. Appearances could be deceiving, and indeed they were in that case. Ser Arron Qorgyle and Ser Ulwyck Uller had very different personalities, and at the first reverses the fragile alliance started to splinter. To make their hopeless rebellion even more complicated, none of the knights and senior commanders managed to agree on their ultimate strategy. The Qorgyle scorpion-hunters wanted revenge against the Dayne cavalry. The Ullers wanted to kill every Dornish who had dared submitting to the Baratheons. There were deserters who wanted to recall Prince Trystane from King's Landing (the Prince wanted nothing of the sort, thank you very much).

The supplies for a military campaign had been limited from the very beginning; the armies rallied to Aegon VI had departed with them to fight in the Reach and beyond. In 305AC, the food and the spears for a rebellion were properly inexistent. And the opposition became more competent. As the three Paramountcies of Dorne reorganised, the rebels were hunted by a mix of veterans returned from the Second Long Night and elite Stormlander Marchers. Just as it wasn't enough, the Sand Snakes attacked again in force. Ser Donnel Swann would remark at that time it was good Sarella and Nymeria Sand were away...Obara and Tyene Sand were quite enough to deal with the problem in a bloody-handed manner. The eldest of the defunct Prince Oberyn was a blunt instrument, impaling the rebel sympathisers so fast their agony on the pikes often were as traumatising for the allies as they were for the enemies. Obara had the subtlety of a warhammer, but her youngest half-sister Tyene was the dagger in the dark. Many leaders, beginning with Ser Arron Qorgyle went to bed one night only to wake up in a couch full of snakes...literally.

As horrible as the methods employed were, the final result was devastatingly effective. By the end of 305AC, the Qorgyle troops had been wiped out, and the Uller ragtag-band was in full retreat across the Scourge River. As the fortnight passed, the remnants of Prince Trystane and Prince Quentyn supporters (who by this point were impossible to recognise from bandits and 'classic' outlaws) were killed or forced to escape to the Stepstones and the Disputed Lands.

Ulwyck Uller and several infamous rebels like the 'Orphan of Sin' and 'Septon Ourobos' escaped justice, but their circle of allies and supporters was thinning day by day. By the time the first days of 306AC came, the clashes and minor raids were so few and laughable in intensity that victory was proclaimed.

For her contribution on the field of battle, Tyene Sand became the new Lady of Salt Shore under the name Tyene Viper, founding a House whose infamous reputation has overtaken the frontiers and the seas.

At last, the forces mustered to put down the various rebellions were free to return home and savour the moments of triumph. For those who wanted to pass their life continuously fighting, there always was the life of sellsword or participating in the Dark Crusades...but that was a story for another day. In this decade the Dornish of the Torentine, Boneway and Greenblood could finally push their efforts towards reconstruction, create new merchant companies, improve the homes in serious need of repair.

There were also religious issues to consider. The general weakening of the Faith of Seven had at first little influence on its Dornish worshippers. Long before Melisandre of Asshai, Thoros of Myr or any Red Priest came to Westeros, Dorne had been welcoming them and had never to deplore grave incidents. The High Septon was far away, and whether the holy man speaking for the Seven was seated in Oldtown or King's Landing was of no concern to an inhabitant of Sunspear. If a religious decree offended the Dornish sensibilities, the Martells were quite flexible in its implementation: there were some edicts dated from before the Conquest still waiting for the Lord or Lady of Sunspear's approval. That said, the new division of the Princedom changed the rapport of force. There were several High Septons each pretending to speak for the Warrior, Father, Mother and the four other divinities. There were other religions benefitting from the re-emergence of magic. The Dornish population had had a lot of their certainties overturned. Religion would not be an exception on that list...


	117. Leadership Crisis

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own the Faith, the Old Gods or R'hllor.

Paul: The fact Lord Wyl had had emptied several bottles and passed a very relaxing evening in pleasant company (for him, the women involved had a somewhat different opinion) may have had something to do with it...

No, it was not a goof. There were plenty of Fowler and other Houses' armsmen who refused to follow the leadership of an Heir or an Heiress, especially when the orders to stand down and swear allegiance to the Baratheons' rule came.

I suspect there were several minor Houses near the Greenblood, and it was them who paid the heaviest price in blood, lands and gold. As they were the defeated, I chose deliberately not to mention any by name.

X59: Yep, sometimes you have to know when bending the knee is the only reasonable option you have left. Unfortunately, some Dornish Houses have not really been described as particularly wise...

thepkrgmc: Since Obara married a lord, granting a lordship would have made her very powerful politically...and she's a far blunter woman than Tyene ever was.

raw666: I haven't decided yet. One thing is sure, with the White Walkers being reported by all witnesses to lead a genocide of all humans, no matter the nationality, the age or the colour of skin, the cults really need to be hidden perfectly. Otherwise a mob would form in an instant and rip them to pieces.

JediMasterDraco: Not a Dornish supporter I see...

 **Leadership Crisis**

 **Part of the Religious Problem Part I**

" _The Faith during the reign of the Lannisters was not part of the solution...therefore I told my King they were part of the problem. And in the North, problems have to be dealt with_." Lord Wyman Manderly, 306AC.

" _I pray to the Old Gods with Nymeria in front of the heart trees. Why would I pray other Gods anywhere else?_ " Princess Arya Stark, 308AC.

' _A crusade! Westeros need a crusade to purge all these heretics!_ " Bloodthirsty septon in the streets of New King's Landing in 314AC before being arrested and given the choice between twenty years of forced labour or going participate to a Dark Crusade.

" _This sentence is a lie! We have plenty of gold left in our treasury!_ " High Septon 'the Stargazing one' of Oldtown, 309AC.

When King Robert Baratheon died from injuries received in a hunting accident and the War of the Eight Kings started, the Faith of the Seven had been acclaimed as the most powerful religion on the continent of Westeros. The worship of the Old Gods had been strictly restrained to the North and a few ancient Houses from the Riverlands and the Vale. The Orphans of the Greenblood venerating Mother Rhoyne were considered as weird by even their fellow countrymen. The Drowned God supporters had suffered a massive blow when the First Greyjoy Rebellion was crushed and thousands of Ironborn were killed. All attempts for Essossi cults to gain power and influence had been firmly rebuffed, with any kingdom save Dorne closing the doors to them. Undoubtedly, the year 298AC saw the apex of the Faith's power.

But when one looked closer, cracks were already forming in the foundations of the towering edifice. Much like the court had become corrupt under the Baratheon and Lannister influence, the highest priests of the Seven-Who-Are-One had become fat and easy to bribe. Massive loans to the severely indebted royal treasury revealed how far from their humble and poor aspirations the septons were now. The High Septon was without contestation the complete opposite of what a real man of faith should be: fat, luscious, gluttonous and greedy, prompt to agree with the Iron Throne as soon as it was in his interests to do it. Filling the coffers with gold dragons had become the favourite activity, not feeding the poor and the starving refugees. It was particularly telling that at no moment during the first skirmishes in the Riverlands and the rise of King Joffrey to the throne, the Faith was called as an intermediary to settle the lordly disputes.

From the poorest smallfolk to the Lords Paramount, the Faith's heart was not a force of peace, faith or neutrality. It was part of the corruption and venality plaguing King's Landing and its surroundings. The Faith had been the most powerful religious voice in Westeros but when the swords were drawn, the sun set upon the successors of Hugor of the Hill's priests.

Five years, a Long Night, a multi-sided Civil War and a Great Council later, the Faith had been dismembered and was now only a shadow of itself. The Great Sept of Baelor was no more, gone down in flames with the rest of King's Landing. The emergency measures had completely failed. By custom, if the High Septon and the Most Devout died it was the Starry Sept of Oldtown which would have the authority to summon a new conclave and become the centre of the Faith for the next years.

This tradition had never been written on parchment or in any other written support, though. And even if it had, it was likely none of the main actors would have cared. By the start of 304AC, there were four High Septons in Westeros, each claiming to be the sole and only legitimate one. Oldtown, White Harbour, Storm's End and Old Anchor; a lot of places were now pretending to host the most prominent septon of the Faith. And sadly for the wealthy septons of the Hightower city, the people of the destroyed Seven Kingdoms were answering these liberty mermaids. Despite the accusations, these schismatic priests were madmen and dangerous heretics in the best of cases, hundreds of smallfolk flocked to assist their ceremonies.

After a brief period of denial, the new High Septon and his new Most Devout at Oldtown realised the dissenters weren't going to come back like good little sheep once the dog barked. Healing the schism was not going to happen with a click of fingers. The problem was how to react and who to push their efforts first. Before they had the time to answer this dilemma, rumours transpired of the holy election being rigged from the very beginning. A violent riot started, the High Septon was aggressed and made an eunuch. He would succumb to his wounds a moon and a half later (there are still rumours Lord Leighton Hightower ordered his assassination to get rid of this disgrace). Two men and one woman of the Most Devout were dead. The fragility of the last traditionalist Faith bastion was threatened.

Elections were organised one more time in a hurry, and this time (mostly) everyone agreed the three new Devout had been chosen in a fair manner. A former septon from Three Towers was chosen, and in his inaugural speech the man nicknamed the 'Stargazing One' (astronomy being one of his passions) affirmed his will to mend the differences and appease the tensions between the different religious communities of the Storm Kingdom.

Numerous emissaries made the alley and returns to Storm's End, carrying instructions to reunify the schism between the Southern Faiths. The new High Septon considered the new Faith supported by House Manderly a considerable threat, and one every loyal son of the Mother had to fight with his mind and heart. The shelters, the hospices, the warm soups, the bread and the rebuilding jobs offered by Lord Wyman with the benediction of his monarchs were proving incredibly popular and rallied many dissenters from the Riverlands and the Westerlands. The Old Gods were the principal deities in the Stark ancestral lands and the former Mallister septon elevated to the Voice of the Gods' office had a huge numerical drawback compared to an area like the owned by the current Tyrell bannersmen. With Dorne, the new Stormlands and the Reach speaking with a single voice, the Seven supporters would have the influence to counter this northern schismatic movement. Or so it was hoped.

Reality was doomed to disappoint them. Following the Battle of the Last Alliance and the birth of Queen Margaery's daughter, the Faith credibility and influence in the Stormlands had been fading at an alarming rate. The Priests of R'hllor did not ask for riches and build great temples in the name of their god. For the majority of the Red Priests present in the Stormlands, celebrating the Lord of Light could happen around a bonfire.

For the men coming from the lands stretching from Brightwater Keep to Sunflower Hall, this was like they had been thrown a bucket of cold water in the face. Far from showing any unity, the last septons having any tiny influence left were bickering with each other. Queen Margaery, the last great supporter of the Faith at the royal court, refused to denounce the red religion. The second wife of the heroic King Stannis had not forgotten who had saved her life when the only thing the Faithful suggested was praying for her salvation. As for the High Septon of the Stormlands, the man had more or less abandoned the court to go preaching in the Marches, where the equivalent of the R'hllor missionaries were still few and far between. But in spite of this, the Red Priests preaching in the Southern kingdom were in no hurry to throw their weight for royal edicts or taxes advantages. Small temples were built at Haystack Hall, Bronzegate and Griffin's Roost, but only because the hundreds of R'hllor worshippers from these holdfasts required a greater meeting place.

At first, the Reach septons and septas laughed at the apparent disinterest of the Lord of Light and Faith converts to plead their cause to Queen Shireen. Then at the first royal audience, their jokes were an awful drink to swallow. The part of the visage from the young Queen which had been disfigured by the greyscale was perfectly healthy. And the Faith humblest servants had only to look at the smiling face of Senior Priest Oeravo to know who was responsible of this apparent miracle.

The Red Priests had magic at their command. The Septons hadn't. While both sides had had their respective godly patron's existence proved without question during the Second Long Night, this distinction was far from meritless in the eyes of the witnesses present at Storm's End.

The supporters of the 'Stargazing one' had some successes. The High Septon named by Queen Shireen's councillors, a septon of merchant origins, had never wanted the title in the first place and demoted himself to the honorific title of 'Senior Septon of the Marches'. Scores of priests in place in the annexed lands of Cider Hall, Bitterbridge, Tumbleton and Grassy Vale acknowledged the authority of the Starry Sept.

The problems which followed cancelled a large part of these gains in influence. The former High Septon of Storm's End (informally nicknamed the 'Marcher one' when he was in office) had not managed to rally the entirety of the Seven convents, minor septs and prayer places to his cause. The Rainwood, for example, had significant religious communities routinely ignoring the decrees of the great and mighty septons. Once one of these prideful men came to their door, maybe they would think about recognising his authority...but a considerable list of neglected duties was added moon after moon.

Besides this issue, dividing Dorne had also created a mess on the religious side. The septons who had survived the three-way civil war had more often than not decided their loyalty went to their flock...and they had relatively little reasons to trust the voice of Oldtown. The Reach reputation had not been bolstered in the last five years, with so many sons dying for Aegon VI 'the Eighth' Targaryen along the banks of the Mander. Moreover, a curious alliance had been somewhat created between the Orphans of the Greenblood and independent septons. Their point of view, that Faithful outsiders considered blasphemous, was the point Mother Rhoyne took the roles of the Maiden, Mother and the Crone.

These admissions quickly resulted in new names being given for the new aspects of the Seven worshipped. The Maiden of the Clear Waters, the Mother of the Source, and the Crone of the Tranquil Stream were the first names coming out this reformation of the Dornish Faith, unified in a single deity the Lady of the Free Waters. The male aspects of the Seven suffered less positive modifications: the Father and the Smith became for inhabitants of the Boneway and the Greenblood the Stone Builder, while the Stranger and the Warrior were granted the far more sinister name Lord of the Sands.

All these religious changes, needless to say, didn't happen in a single day. To be precise, they didn't even happen in a single decade. The Northern and Dornish septs had always been granted more flexibility and leeway in their teachings; the proximity of barbarians and heretics to convert was judged to take priority over minor doctrinal quarrels. Now in hindsight it was evident it had failed. Deprived of any central head, the Faith in the North was returning to a strange hybrid of defending the masses and willing to tolerate officially other cults and religions. It proved hugely popular in the Riverlands: there were nine or ten septons of importance who had each their own planning and supporters, the most prominent being of course at Riverrun. Old Gods sanctuaries were consecrated anew at High Heart, the God's Eye, Raventree Hall and the Whispering Wood.

These were not the only deities to make a return. From the Three Sisters refugees in the North and the Vale, the worship of the Lady of the Waves and the Lord of the Skies rose again, though it proved more popular in the lands ruled by Queen Ygritte than on the Northern eastern coast. Plenty of Essossi travelled westwards due to the terrible conflicts, arriving to the new Free City in construction and bringing their faiths with them. The Pale-Moon Maiden, the Goddess of Love from Lys, the ancient venerations of the Fourteen Freehold Gods flourished on a side of the narrow Sea where their followers had been previously heavily persecuted and hunted. Mountain clansmen of all sorts descended from the mountains and spoke of new tenets for the Old Gods. In the Northern-held Westerlands and the Free Western Republic, thousands chose to join the Order of the Dwarf Triumphant or one of the lesser organisations elevating Lord Tyrion Lannister to sainthood.

The religious developments of the decade were viewed more and more with disgust by the most conservative septons of Westeros. From a purely numerical perspective, the Faith had still more supporters than all the other existing religions, but it was a fractured superiority, divided between decentralised places of cults which were increasingly distant. The only thing one had to do in order to rally the 'Friend of the Poor' at White Harbour was to recognise his authority and devote over half of the donations to those in need. Only in grave cases of molestations, abuses, corruption and crimes did the Northern Faith intervened, a far more conciliatory attitude than the one showed by his predecessors of King's Landing.

Intolerance policies and crusades against non-believers were not popular anymore. The Oath of Duskendale and the Second Long Night had come before, and humanity had been forced to realise religious differences did not matter a lot when monsters led the charge to annihilate all life. Only silver lining, the miracles and the return of magic to the centre of preoccupations meant few men and women were willing to turn godless. The deities had played their hands too openly for it to be the case.

Alas, the implications for the Faith were still bad. The 'Old Faith' bastion of Oldtown, now gathering little influence outside the South, was in deep economic trouble. The higher levels of the Seven worshippers had continued to live luxurious and pleasant lives in the Great Sept quarters while others trimmed in abject misery. This was going to change. Without the income from the North, hundreds of silver stags which were tithed from White Harbour annually were going...elsewhere. The Riverlands had hundreds of small septs with tiny contribution, but being spread over the populous and agricultural region had represented an important gold dragons figure. The Westerlands being lost translated in the absence of any Casterly Rock and Lannisport 'gifts'. The Golden Sept of Lannisport had been utterly sacked, and while Lady Joy Lannister ordered a new one to be rebuilt in 308AC, the new version was far more modest...and in support of the 'Friend of the Poor' policies. The 'Militant one' orations in the Vale ensured the energies of his flock were turned towards rebuilding and unity against the Great Enemy, not straight to Southern coffers. The 'Stargazing one' was forced to sell a lot of properties between 306 and 310AC to delay treasury problems...and without a complete set of reforms the problems were only going to accumulate.

It was a new world, with new participants in the Game of Gods. And no maester or historian of the time was able to say where this religious road would lead...


	118. The Damnation of the Basilisk Islands

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own the pirates, Sothoryos or the Basilisk Islands.

Paul: Yeah, the High Septon of the Stormlands was mostly designated volunteer when the fighting truly started against the Others and the Red Priests were more contested than ever. The man never truly wanted the job, and at that moment the most renowned R'hllorite was Melisandre of Asshai. Not exactly a glowing endorsement.

Maester Yandel who wrote the World of Ice and Fire in canon is dead in this timeline, the man didn't survive when Euron Greyjoy stormed the citadel in his quest of magical artefacts. Not that it would have saved him in the long-term: he wasn't one of Marwyn's allies, and his tendency to toe the line did not make him popular with the maesters willing to reform their order.

X59: Thanks! Yes, with the communications methods disrupted and the chaos of the different struggles, each religious man or woman had to answer on his or her own to what he or she truly wanted for the Faith. Some were truly too entrenched in their corruption, a majority wanted a new departure but had different ways to resolve it. Humanity is never a monolithic bloc, and once again it shows...

thepkrgmc: In some ways, it was unavoidable, Long Night or no Long Night. The Faith by the time canon begins has become too large, too corrupt, and is regarded with distrust. That the septons are notorious money-lenders and their highest representatives are fat and gluttonous did not help their cause.

raw666: Thanks a lot!

 **The Damnation of the Basilisk Islands**

 **Sothoryos and the Basilisk Isles Part I**

" _Nowhere in Essos will you find such a hive of scum and villainy_." Captain Ianos 'the Scoundrel' Solos, 241AC.

" _You were beaten by apes, Sothoryan! You have not your place at that table!_ " Captain Redbeard, 300AC.

" _The Basilisk Islands are proof that sometimes, humans can be their own worst enemy_." Lysene expert on the Basilisk Isles, 312AC.

" _We have twenty declared Pirate Kings today. It's nineteen more than we need_." Anonymous corsair captain, 300AC.

Sothoryos. A large continent, said to be larger than Essos or Westeros depending on the sources. The place was covered in jungles, plagued by extremely lethal diseases and plenty of dangerous animals. The Northern coast had been mapped...sort of. Everyone knew where the ruins of Zamettar, Yeen, Gogossos and Gorosh were, but the experts on this part of the world were generally at a loss when it came to explain the successive disappearances of entire towns.

Every massive attempt of colonisation had failed in Sothoryos. The Rhoynar were the first to break their teeth here, followed by the Ghiscari until the Fourth Ghiscari War lost to the Valyrian Freehold.

If the dragonlords had hoped to create a valuable and prosperous city, they quickly had to reassert their ambitions downwards. Zamettar was a walled city, and it was not just to impress their citizens. Built at the mouth of the Zamoyos river, the colonists coming from the Fourteen Flames were confronted with swarms of carnivorous fishes (among them the infamous 'piranhos'), crocodiles larger than a horse bred for battle, stinging flies, murderous basilisks, venomous snakes, wasps and worms having the disgusting and deadly habit of laying their eggs beneath the skin of their victims. And yes, their preys included humans, horses, and every livestock or other animal the Essossi brought with them like the elephants.

The attempts of dragonrider Jaenara Belaerys on Terrax to find an end to this continent-sized jungle having ended in failure, the Valyrian governing the vast empire of the Freehold decided to acknowledge the reality: Sothoryos was not and would never be the place to create a second Valyria.

Zamettar continued to be inhabited, as the dragonlords demands for exotic and rare Sothoryan goods was high, but the colonialist will was not directed towards this area anymore. The Basilisk Isles were transformed into a massive penal colony, where the Valyrians sent their worst criminals. The name of Gogossos was soon whispered in fear from the Narrow Sea to Asshai. In spite of the distances involved, there were rumours of abominable sorceries defiling the place, of wizards completely insane practising their arts in vile and cruel methods, of slave women being bred by monsters and birthing hybrids which should have never seen the light of day.

Even this state of things did not last. Following a terrible episode of green fever which wiped out seven-tenths of the colonists, Zamettar was left abandoned and the survivors of this epidemic either went back to Essos or tried to survive on their own in the wilderness. The fact many of the latter began to worship dark gods and practised cannibalism didn't make this choice of life very popular, though. Gogossos remained the most advanced bastion near Sothoryos, being in the Basilisk isles...but no one sane wanted to go there on his own volition.

Then the Doom struck Valyria. Gogossos for a moment was able to shine with a brilliant and malevolent light in the Century of Blood, earning the nickname 'Tenth Free City'. It did not last. Officially and as noted in the maester records, a new epidemic of Red Death consumed the Basilisk Islands, killing the masters and the slaves indifferently, reducing the initial numbers by nine-tenths. Unofficially, people murmured a sinister sorcerer calling himself the 'Demon Architect' had tried a dark and horrifying ritual to become a divinity...a deed which had obviously backfired and transformed the islands into a slaughter pit.

No Free City or any of its magisters mourned the fall of Gogossos. Yet every party was forced to admit its destruction was...inconvenient. The sorceries practised by power-hungry warlocks and fleshsmiths were the act of madmen, but it had allowed a redoubt of Old Valyria to remain. Gogossos infamous war galleys had maintained order in their coastal waters, and as only particularly desperate adventurers chose to land on Sothoryos, this part of the Summer Sea was generally safe.

No Gogossos, no security. In less time that it took to say it, the Basilisk Isles were heavily raided by hundreds of ships, eager to seize forbidden lore, magical artefacts, slaves and Valyrian weapons. Many found an early death when they discovered the blood magic permeating the very air of the ruins was still active. Few slavers or adventurers found anything of value. The ones who stayed however, could not affirm they were better than the insanity having reigned there. Pirates. Corsairs. Slavers. Every reaver, dark adventurer, escaped prisoner or criminal hunted by the authorities from Volantis, Ghis, Slaver's Bay and Qarth was headed to the Basilisk Islands. A Triarch openly remarked in public it was like a lighthouse attracting those having fallen to the blackness of their souls.

From evil den of sorcerers, Gogossos and the surrounding places had become a haven for the outlaws, with depressing consequences for trade and navigation. "Nowhere in Essos will you find such a hive of scum and villainy" exclaimed the infamous smuggler Solos in his trial in 241AC at Volantis (it was before his sixth spectacular escape rumoured to include a Triarch's daughter, for more read the _True_ _Exploits of Captain Solos_ by Maester Jon). Volantis mustered time and time again immense fleets to get rid of this pirate problem...with little to no success. At best, the Volantene armada crushed a fleet of pirates and returned home...to receive the news another corsair had taken the title as soon as they had their back turned. Far more common was the result of the outlaws fleeing and abandoning their islands for the safety of the sea and rebuilding elsewhere. And there was always the case where the admiral commanding the Lys fleet decided to become his own lord and master. There wasn't always a King of Pirates in the Basilisk Isles...but there were always many scum and sea hunters avid to claim the title.

Decades later in the eve of the Eight King's War, the situation had not changed that much. A new 'corsair king' raided Tall Tree Towns in the Summer Isles in late 298AC, proving the piracy in the Summer and Sunset Seas had still good days before them. The half-decade of hostilities opening with the Essossi Apocalypse, the War of the Eight Kings and the myriad of little conflicts happening at the same time were a golden opportunity for the corsairs and every outlaw owing an armed ship.

Coffers of precious stones, tapestries, lace, gold bullion, silver and weapons forged by elite smiths were taken by the pirates, the hostilities preventing too often regular navies from sending powerful warships as escorts. It was a time of plunder and celebrations without equal for the men of Black Pudding, Whore's Gash and Port Plunder. Used to capture at best one merchant per year, quite a few corsairs saw their wildest dreams granted and abandoned all caution whether in their military endeavours or in their private life.

It was really unfortunate, because the real enemy was going to strike. From the jungles of Sothoryos, monkey-humanoid warriors emerged in numbers untold. The human population of Sothoryos, the one which had not been sold into slavery or become cannibals in front of black altars, was in no shape to resist. To be sure, this twisted version of apes was not far above naked savages, as none wore armours and their weapons were big maces, sticks and stones. Well, their claws and teeth too if one wanted to be accurate.

At first the denizens of the Basilisk Isles laughed when they were told of the first massacres. Surely the Sothoryans had not fallen so low to be beaten by angry monkeys? But as the tide advanced and annihilated the meagre settlements of the northern coast, the sneers and the jokes ceased one by one. The monkey-warriors were not well-armed, yes. But when it came down to it, the pirates were hardly benefiting from top equipment, even after having plundered Volantene, Lysene, Braavosi and Qarthene guards. Rare was the captain owning a set of full plate and a first-rate sword. They were also far from united, with infamous outlaws governing each the isles of Toads, Flies, Tears, Ax Isle, Skull Isle amongst others. And as the inhuman enemy ravaged the last bastions of human presence on Sothoryos, the pirates realised at last something.

Their opponents had the numbers and the will to use them. The Isle of Toads defenders learnt this lesson when the strait between the continent and their island was covered in improvised rafts (nothing more than a variety of tree known for its floating capacities) where thousands of gesticulating figures roared with non-dissimulated anger. The alarm was sounded, and five pirate ships sallied out of the harbour. Only to be boarded by hundreds of enraged monkeys. The pirates were taken as much by surprise as their own victims in the Summer Sea. Four of the five human outlaws crews were promptly slaughtered, eaten and had their remains desecrated (the survivors were quite affirmative it happened in that particular order). The men left ashore, roughly six hundred warriors led by the cruel Captain Redbeard, had no wish to fight a rear-guard action and save the defenceless inhabitants. They were pirates, and only their skins mattered. Taking the ships anchored on the other side of the island, Redbeard's followers escaped, letting their former subjects to the hunger of the humanoid monkeys. In vain, children begged their father to come back and save them on the beaches. In vain, women screamed to their lovers to sail back and take them aboard. None of their pleas were heard. With a fanaticism which would have made the High Septon Justicar look like a pleasant priest, the new conquerors butchered every living being in the reach of their claws and fangs.

In the mean time, Redbeard and the men under his command roused the other pirates of the archipelago, although they took great care to hide the whole extent of their non-defence ( for nothing as the lone surviving ship of the fighting managed to rally the Isle of Tears). In the streets of Fort Plunder, not far from the ruins of Gogossos, thousands of reavers, corsairs and diverse shipmasters gathered. For once, the pirate armada had a common goal: expulse the enemy from the Isle of Toads as soon as possible. Fleeing against the great fleets of Volantis was one thing. Being humiliated by non-human warriors who certainly had not yet understood how fire could be a valuable advantage was quite another.

In less than a fortnight, the pirate coalition had mustered over sixty ships and twelve thousand men, which did not wait long before sailing to Toad Island (it was likely the pirates in charge of Fort Plunder knew that letting that many pirates in the same town was just asking for trouble). There was no 'King of the Pirates' to lead them however. Or to be more accurate, nearly two score of captains had proclaimed themselves with that title in the largely futile hope more brutes and captains would follow their orders, and bickered endlessly for the title of supreme commander. Voting didn't solve anything, each commander voting for himself (or herself, women being the exception but not an impossibility). As a result, the landing on the Isle of Toads was realised in a chaotic fashion, with each captain watching the others, searching for betrayal signs or simply trying to put his rivals in harm's way.

The landing was far from finished when the monkey warriors realised the presence of the humans. Pushing screams and gibberish imprecations able to petrify the blood of a veteran soldier, a tide of the creatures rushed to meet the corsairs. Over five thousands men who were on the beach answered with battle cries of their own, and charged for the battle of their lives. Ultimately, it was a battle the monkey warriors had no chance to win. The outlaw crews fought each on their own, but many had fought together for years with spears, swords and bows, granting them far more firepower than their savage enemies. Moreover, the inhuman troops seemed to fight like possessed fanatics, and while it was useful to ignore pain and severe damage, there was no discipline or any tactics worth the name.

There were perhaps nine thousands of the Sothoryans primates in this first charge. Under light scorpions, arrows and the sabres of the corsairs, the murderous apes were decimated. The shields and the spears pushed them back, but still in their folly more arrived to die, attempting to bring the human attackers with them in death. Crude stones were launched in the air but most failed to seriously inconvenience the raiders of the Basilisk Isles. The monkey warriors were not coordinated and while they failed to repulse the initial advance of the Gogossos men, fresh waves of reinforcements came ashore. The fight, already not that equal, was now becoming a very one-sided affair. The inhuman troops threw themselves over wall of pikes and shields to come at close quarters with the human warriors. Alas for them, while their spirit was indomitable, their flesh was not. Pierced in the heart or the head, the oversized apes were quick to die; the rest of the body was more resilient than the one of their human counterparts but not that much. Foot by foot, the apes had their lives removed, with Redbeard pirates forming the core of the vanguard, desperate as they were to make forget their (rumoured) cowardice.

The monkey warriors did not withdraw, and thus fell upon the axes and the swords of men not particularly renowned for their sense of mercy. Between eight and ten thousands of these beasts died on the beach which was known to the corsairs under the name _Jack's pursuit_. Five thousand more were slain before disaster struck.

In the middle of the Island of the Toads, there was a stone. Forty feet eight, it was created in an oily black stone and shaped like a toad. A very evil and deformed toad, but a toad, and the inhabitants making this island had long since dubbed it as a result the _Toad Stone_. It was about the only thing worth remembering of the island landscape besides the venereal diseases according to well-informed sources. That said, nobody had ever tried to seriously damage or destroy it. There was something...different about that stone, an unease that the wanted men of the Basilisk Isles were unable to explain.

Nobody had ever tried before today. The monkey warriors were unable of course to destroy the structure with their obsolete and primitive weapons, but they had done their best to carve their own version of profanities and insults on it. If it had been a period where magic was at low levels, maybe the horror could have been avoided. Maybe.

But it was 300AC. A moment where great enemies stirred in the night, where darkness threatened to engulf the entire world. A challenge had been issued to an entity the sorcerers of Old Valyria had not been insane enough to disturb. Under the incredulous eyes of both humans and non-humans, the statue almost disappeared, replaced by a whirlwind of putrid green light.

The veil was thinning. The Damnation of the Basilisk Islands could begin.


	119. Heroes and Monsters

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own the pirates, Sothoryos or the Basilisk Islands.

Paul: Yes, they were people who escaped the massacres on Sothoryos. Mainly those who had ships. Afterwards, their fates differ. Those who will choose the Targaryen Empire will have the opportunity of a better life. Ghis and Qarth however are less than pleasant destinations.

A few men of Redbeard stayed behind indeed, or tried to oppose the decision of their captain and were left behind (which ultimately ended the same way). There were many corsairs who were executed for being too soft-hearted, and the survivors in many ways were the worst from several crews, united by a cruel captain under the same banner.

The last ship managed to kill the first wave of boarders before sailing away and pulverising many rafts. Some apes were too busy trying to swim rather than launching their assault.

Oh, this line continues...

X59: Glad I achieved the Pirates of the Caribbean vibe. Of course it's a bit darker, because Planetos is GRRM's creation and not so nice a place. Oh, something sent the monkeys warriors on their mad spree. Even for this world, the coincidence of them attacking just the island which has something horrible buried under it would be incredibly unlikely.

thepkrgmc: Yes, the Basilisk Islands and Sothoryos have much lighter densities of population due to all the diseases and the conditions they're forced to live in. Captain Solos would be indeed a charismatic leader, but he's dead long before this time. Or is he?

raw666: The story continues. Sothoryos might not seem so important in the grand scheme of things, but you will see the plot being linked to it in the current chapter. Besides it's fun! As for the number of chapters...I think chapter 150 might be a good endpoint but all remains to be decided.

yesboss21: Yep, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies are one of the best things to take inspiration from. As for the ruins, the cults and everything from ages past, remember that the written traces have disappeared or been deliberately erased. Asshai may be twice older than every other city, or it may be far younger than Oldtown. There are Gods and worships which may be present since immemorial times...we have simply no way to know. Everything which is a problem in canon seems to be far worse for the maesters and the amateur historians of Planetos...

Aki no hikari: Answer in the chapter of the hero's name...but I see you read it! Thank you for your compliments about the interlude and the story...I congratulate you for your rapidity in reading 118 chapters in two days!

Eduard Kassel: Maybe (grin). The legend of Captain Solos is full of misdemeanours and rumours of epic deeds, it is difficult to separate the truth from the false...

For the inhabitants of the isles, I think the Basilisk archipelago has become enough of a nightmare. The future will tell if someone will attempt colonisation after these bloody events.

JediMasterDraco: To be frank, I didn't see the Star Wars movie. I just had the idea of deforming a bit the original name...lucky coincidence, I guess.

 **Heroes and Monsters**

 **Sothoryos and the Basilisk Isles Part II**

" _Kill it with fire! Kill it with fire!_ " Captain Ta'or 'the Pyromaniac', 300AC.

" _The battle here was only the beginning of our quest. We must go to Sothoryos and slay evil forever!_ " Captain Ta'or 'the Pyromaniac', 300AC.

" _First time the men are not worried I will try to steal their women. They're not wrong..._ " Prince Rickon 'the Wild Wandering Direwolf', 313AC.

The league of pirates, corsairs, smugglers, slavers and various outlaws had no doubt imagined many celebrations once they had finished expulsing the big apes which had massacred the local human population. Wine, women (or men for female captains), forbidden substances and flaunting their ill-gotten wealth had certainly figured prominently in their plans. Fighting an entity which could only be described as magical and extremely powerful had not been expected at all.

They were not given the choice. The veil between reality and a far more terrifying place was thinning. A new battle was about to begin, as a cloud of putrid green light appeared from nowhere.

The vanguard of the pirate alliance was the first group of soldiers to see their enemy and come into contact with it. They were the nearest from the Toad Stone, massacring the monkey warriors by the scores. What exactly they saw is a mystery. The cloud of magic was no normal weather incident: as soon as the skin of a human being came into contact with it, buboes appeared, oozing black pus and bleeding when opened. Fever and vomiting blood were the next symptoms...in less time it took to say it, the most bloodthirsty attackers and their enemies had been covered into buboes and presented an aspect which was truly inhuman. The pain followed, their insides devoured by known and unknowns plagues, their mind destroyed by fevers, their limbs growing flask and useless.

Death when it came was truly a mercy.

There was a lot of screaming and panic, needless to say. Seeing their allies of circumstances emerge from the magical event terminally ill and die at their feet was far more than the average outlaw had bargained for. Without delay, the pirates and the corsairs decided curiosity was a huge fault, and acted in consequence. Hundreds of men abandoned the positions they had paid in blood to take and rushed to the beaches. Retaking the island had been completely forgotten. Now the only thought in their mind was to get away from this place. Now.

Alas for them, putting an entire army on ships is a logistical nightmare at the best of times, and outlaw hulls are far from disciplined. Moreover, the landing of the forces was not yet over. At the very moment the men commenced their escape, there were still troops coming ashore on Jack's Pursuit. All wanted to go back to their ships...but they were not enough rowboats to transport a third of their diminished numbers.

The retreat turned to disaster. The disease cloud was spreading all over the island, contaminating the brave captains willing to go save their crew. A dread feeling of urgency wormed its way in the heart of every corsair, each realising that staying where they stood would result in a horrible death. The outcome was as dramatic as it was unavoidable. In the throes of panic, corsairs and smugglers started to fight each other for a boat. Any small hull to lead them out of there was welcome, and quickly the beach and the low-water approaches were coloured in red. Outlaws who moments before had been fighting for a common cause were murdering cruelly each other for a place into a wood raft. Some pirates were excellent swimmers and tried to return their ship doing a little exercise, but they were the exception, not the rule. Furthermore, the torrents of blood shed in the water were attracting sharks and other sea predators, making it a very dangerous proposition.

But the real horror was yet to come. In their race against the magical disease, the humans had imagined the victims were simply dying in awful suffering. The truth was far worse. As the green fumes became clearer, the corsairs heard the awful groans and moans coming from the depths of the fog.

Then they came.

The contaminated had nothing to do anymore with the bombastic pirates covered in precious clothes, armours and gemstones. They were now covered in buboes and rags, pus spreading from all their wounds. Their skin was now an ugly mix of yellow and green. Their eyes were dead, inexpressive. It was an army of death, crawling, marching, gurgling and spreading the infernal afflictions in the air and on the Toad soil.

The magic was not killing the humans after all, the pirates realised. Not permanently and in a satisfactory fashion anyway. Humans and primates rose up again, dead or alive did not seem to matter for the lethal green cloud. The forces of the Basilisk Islands assisted powerlessly at the commencement of an army similar to the wights deployed by the Others...but one far more repugnant and disgusting than everything the denizens of the Lands of Always Winter had unleashed during the Second Long Night.

Slowly and methodically, the dozens of walking buboes-corpses mustered, forming a tide of diseases and putrefaction. The rowboats were evacuating hundreds, but too slowly. The disease smoke was now spreading close to the entire island.

Judging they were not going to get away out of this nightmare, Captain Ta'or, more commonly known this day as the 'Pyromaniac', decided that if the moment of his death had come, he and his crew of the _Big Belly_ were not going to go quietly into death embrace. Launching fire arrows and everything inflammable in their possession, the pirates originating from Gogossos charged, preceded by a sizable inferno. Ta'or and his subordinates' reasoning (if one wanted to gratify a band of illiterate scum with the ability to make a logical action) was to go back to the basics and purge the archipelago in infernal temperatures. "Kill it with fire!" screamed the vociferating outlaws, plunging into the burning silhouettes of the putrid individuals they had once called partners-in-crime.

Evidently, this strategy was utterly insane. The corrupted and bloated corpses of the defeated were burning, but the non-diseased humans were not immune to this improvised firestorm. The strategy was working...sort of. Not entirely preoccupied by living matters, the contaminated tried to embrace their partners in crime. Atrocious scenes where a burning purulent ape transmitted both fire and disease before being consumed by the flames were common place. It was good that the inhabitants of the Isle of Toads were already dead, because the sight of the pirates wanting to burn their holdings in their attempts to exterminate these creatures of nightmare would have driven them to suicide.

The corsairs deprived of transportation, after a brief period of doubt and uncertainty, followed the murderous Pyromaniac in his burning quest. By staying close to the flames, contamination was ranging from limited to non-existent. It was not the case where the fires went out: the diseases were not long in catching those who remained in cold places.

The battle raged for the rest of the day and the entire night after that. The outlaws of the Basilisk Isles did not demand quarter, and their contaminated opponents did not give them one. Toad Island was scoured several times in fire, and by the end of this indiscriminate slaughter it was accurate to say nothing survived. The grass, the trees, the animals, the monkey warriors; everything had been incinerated. In the middle of the island where the unnatural infection had begun, there was nothing. The Toad Statue had disappeared.

Tactically, it was a victory for the corsair coalition. But it was an extremely costly one. Of twelve thousand men who had sailed for battle, about four thousand and five hundred were alive...and four thousand of them were in the warships having escaped, abandoning their fellow pirates to damnation, plague and an eternity of torment into corrupted flesh. Captain Ta'or 'the Pyromaniac' had now just two ships and a couple of hundred fighters fit for naval and battle duties.

Many of Ta'or supporters were eager to launch new attacks upon those who had abandoned them when the forces of death and diseases marched for war. Captain Redbeard had once more managed to extricate himself from the fighting and abandon the islanders. In the opinion of many surviving captains, this was cowardice beyond words and the man deserved an axe in his skull, the sooner the better.

Their leader didn't share his opinion. Once Ta'or was recovered from his ghastly wounds (most of his face was burnt according to credible reports, forcing him to keep a helmet upon his head at all times) the pirate captain affirmed he had received a vision from R'hllor. The announcement astonished the majority of the whores and the criminals present, as Ta'or had been very much the opposite of a pious man. Before the current affair, the _Big Belly_ had captured several transports of pilgrims and sold them as slaves to the authorities of Faros. As a result, playing the 'vision revelation' card was highly suspicious for men having lived a life of vice and debauchery since they were able to walk.

What followed out of the mouth of the Pyromaniac was not destined to reassure them. According to Ta'or, the whole primate invasion had been a way for the Lord of Diseases to liberate himself from his prison. The brave pirates had obviously stopped its nefarious plot here, but now the God (or Demon depending on the point of view) was waking up in the heart of the Yeen city. It was their grand duty to sail at once for Sothoryos and prevent his rising by the flame and the sword.

The band of corsairs who had not started to worship Ta'or as a prophet had a few objections against this insanity. First, Sothoryos was a widely unexplored continent. The opposition waiting for any expeditionary force between them and Yeen could be absolutely limitless. Yeen itself had been abandoned centuries ago and who knew what sort of horrors had made it their lair? Secondly, it was not with five hundred humans, half of them in pain when they had to stand up and walk, that they were about to start a successful quest. Thirdly, the lack of supplies was going to worsen in the next days. The corsair alliance had planned for a shot battle at the Isle of Toads, a not-so inconsiderable assumption considering the short distance from their respective bases and the small size of the island. Now all the supplies put ashore had burnt with the rest, not that anyone would have accepted to eat potentially-tainted food. What was in the hulls of the two ships at anchor was now all they were going to have for a long time. No, it was better to travel to one of the islands the cowards had no forts and safe harbours in order to recover. Mystical prophecies of epic quests and visions could wait for a decade or two.

"R'hllor will provide" was the reply from Captain Ta'or. Big gestures with axes, spears and swords made clear the beautiful endeavour was not to be refused...contesters would go to explain before the Red God in less than a turn of hourglass. A group of three corsairs nonetheless escaped, using one of the rafts used by the monkeys to sail to the Isle of Tears.

The Pyromaniac and his followers themselves sailed towards Sothoryos and their destiny. One of the two ships Ta'or used was discovered abandoned in the bay of Zamettar by a Ghiscari adventurer in 305AC. Of the R'hllor fanatic and his devoted servants there was no sign.

Back to the Basilisk Islands, the lands of the archipelago were pursuing their long descent into madness. The pirates and smugglers having fled the Isle of Toads were hopeful they had avoided the disgusting malevolence of the local demon (or divinity, it all depended on the point of view), and who cared if those they had left behind were sacrificed. What was important was that they were not in danger of death anymore, the look-outs having confirmed the magic dissipation from afar.

Alas for them, the outlaws understood rapidly that their escape had nothing miraculous. In fact, it was soon taking a hellish turn. No one who had survived the wrath of the disease entity was afflicted with buboes or vomiting. Perhaps. It was hard to tell with the disastrous hygiene some pirates had.

No, the remaining members of the pirate coalition were now cursed in various manners. On the Isle of Birds, nearly the entire population of birds was attacking the sailors at random intervals, no exception. The worst part was that the agitated masters of the sky were totally ignoring the persons having not travelled to Toad Isle. At Whore's Gash, the men known for their sexual exploits found themselves unable to copulate. At Port Plunder, cheaters and particularly wealthy individuals lost their fortunes at a speed defying comprehension.

Enormous clouds of flies surrounded the smugglers of the Isle of Flies. Gogossos foundations bled of true blood tears. Harvests suffered. The weather passed from rainy to sunny and inversely without any logical cause. In the sea surrounding the islands, fearsome carnivorous fishes made their return. Sea-living crocodiles bigger than a pontoon came out of nowhere, and huge sharks of colours as stupefying as the length of their jaws followed them. Captain Redbeard and his ship the _Black Pearl_ were shattered by a gigantic tortoise several fortnights after these incidents.

Of all, it was Skull Island which got the worst deal in 302AC when the men and women living there decided to kill each other, wanting to make throne of skulls for some obscure entity (fortunately said demon never granted any miracle, and everybody agreed this was for the best).

The skull massacres eventually ended due to the annihilation of the locals, but the Basilisk Islands did not start the period of rebuilding and prosperity. Between various calamities, over half of the entire population was dead. The diseases - these ones not magical - made ravages in a population which had grown extremely superstitious but had no true healers or knowledge masters. Many outlaws tried to emigrate towards greener pastures...tried being the key word. The newly created Targaryen Empire hated slavers on principle, and pirates were never officially welcomed into any respectable harbour of the Free Cities (unofficially was always a fascinating and mysterious development). Plenty of criminal contacts were dead, and the Basilisk emigrants were executed more often than not at their return to the mainland they had tormented during decades. Outlaws being outlaws, they were ship-masters who managed to evade the nets of justice, but not enough to make it an attracting life.

Years passed and what little order had been on the Basilisk Islands vanished. It was this situation Prince Rickon Stark found when he arrived on the Island of Tears in 312AC. Freshly arrived from Volantis where the young man had been involved in plenty of scandals, the youngest brother of King Robb Stark was free to watch the ruins of several outposts and harbours. Contrary to the rumours affirmed, there were no sizeable fleet of pirates waiting only a favourable wind to prey on the Summer Islands or the Qarthene trade. No, only a fearful, scared and poor crowd was there to welcome the first Stark man to pose his foot on these shores for hundreds of years.

For an adventurous man like Prince Rickon, this was definitely a let-down. Fortunately, there were still tales of the Pyromaniac circulating. Going at the research of a lost pirate expedition in the middle of a continent covered by jungles with promises of ruins and maleficent magical entities promised to be far more interesting...


	120. The Empire endures

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own Essos, House Targaryen or Slaver's Bay.

Paul: Yes, Redbeard was in the vanguard...when the pirates landed on the beaches. Unfortunately, when no one was looking for him, Redbeard stayed in the rear and when the fog started he was out of the danger zone. That's why he survived when so many did not.

The pirates who were not bleeding when they began swimming generally made it to the ships. The distance was not that great, and the sea conditions were nearly optimal. If you were bleeding however, you chances were infinitesimal. Sharks are big and love a good meal near the Basilisk Islands...

The monkey warriors wounded or killed less than a thousand men all told, and generally those included the corsairs ignoring tactics, having poor equipment and having little experience in fighting.

The tortoise move in the same direction as the ship, and when it emerged from the waters...the ship wasn't the winner. Nope, there is no one left on Skull Island...just large pile of skulls. Not many of the four thousand survivors are still alive. And those are have not profited from their lives. They are cursed to endure misfortune until their last breath.

Wai Liu had family, yes. In fact like many Yi-Tish nobles he had sired too many children, with the problems one might expect from it. And the succession has been left a bit unclear, not to mention there are ambitious generals waiting by the dozens to make their bid for the throne.

X59: The issue is that the Lord of Disease threatened very much humanity in this sector...but only followers of R'hllor intervened in this battle. One might say the other deities of Planetos have dropped the ball on this one.

Rickon is not to Jack Sparrow's levels...no one can beat Jack Sparrow! But he may or may have not a long history with a lot of women...

thepkrgmc: Yes...though many would argue the influence of the Great Other during the Long Night was nothing to sneeze at. Stark children more often than not travel to locations where there is a high chance there will be in harm's way, and Rickon is no exception to this.

raw666: Thanks for the support!

yesboss21: Okay...the Green Men. Well I had not planned to include them since the Others didn't manage to invade the Riverlands...I will see what I can do.

 **The Empire endures**

 **The Targaryen Empire Part II**

" _The Mother of Dragons gave the first spark. Tens of thousands women and men made the dream true_." Regent Missandei, 314AC.

" _Temples. A Senate. Dragons, elephants and tigers. Uncountable cultures and beliefs. Except snow, I think you can find everything in Volantis_." Anonymous Westerosi traveller, 312AC.

" _Did the Mother of Dragons know what sort of realm she was going to create? Some of her supporters say yes, but I have my doubts..._ " Arch-historian Marwyn 'the Mage', in front of his students at Summerhall, 315AC. Five days later, the venerable founder would go on his last attempt to 'make the eighth' and die in a whorehouse at Lannisport after converting to Tyrionism. For more information on the infamous details of this debauchery, reading _Life of Sin_ by Myrielle Lannister is required.

A rebellion had lived. That was the general opinion anyway of the Volantene population when the treacherous scions of the Old Blood demanded their audience to the recently arrived Regent Missandei. One of the two Triarchs having led this little civil war was dead, his faction in disarray, dead or dispersed. The second was in dire straits, his power and his influence reduced to shadows of the glory the Valyrian elite once wielded. Malassos Borroro and his co-conspirators had banked in the foundations of their defiance on the basis the dragons were gone. But as the current strategic situation made clear, the Targaryen Empire military forces had not needed to unleash a dragon or for that matter tens of thousands troops to crush this all too predictable betrayal. Unable to stop their own quarrels, the men and women considering themselves the only worthy successors of the Freehold had in their majority ruined themselves hiring sellswords, shedding blood to settle pointless feuds and grab a power which had never been reachable in the first place.

To add an insult to the injury, it appeared the extinction of the dragons proclaimed by Borroro and his minions had been a bit...premature. The magnitude of said error was revealed when Viserion was paraded outside Volantis, in a large propaganda coup ordered by the women and the men who had survived the Essos Apocalypse and the Second Long Night.

Of course, some delusional traitors still holding inside the Black Walls remarked the pale dragon had no rider. The most pessimistic of their co-conspirators retorted the Regent really didn't need a dragon to squash them like bugs. Yes, Viserion had been dragged from his volcanic nest of Dragonstone by the promise of food and the close proximity of persons having served loyally his disappeared mistress. And what, asked the most sceptical ones? Their palaces were empty, their fortunes dilapidated, their servants had gone missing and their food reserves were just enough to live day after day. Dragon or no dragon, their resistance was arriving to its end.

Nevertheless, the terms delivered by Regent Missandei demanded their surrender and rebuilding Slaver's Bay's coast village by village with their own hands. For former slaves or common citizens, this might have been considered a lenient sentence. For nobles priding themselves of a pure and spotless ancestry over centuries if not millennia, it was a mortal insult. The blood of the infant Empress would be far enough compensation to avenge it...as soon as they could find an assassin working for free. Rumours of the young Essossi ruler having bonded with a newborn dragon only increased the anger of the doomed traitors, who prepared for a series of terror attacks.

This glorious (by their own point of view) last stand never came. Using secret passages which had been forgotten by everyone save a few curious servants, hundreds of Targaryen soldiers poured inside the Black Walls and attacked. While Triarch Saena Laenyr had advised to let her ancient colleagues fall a bit further in the mud, the Unsullied and the other military forces opposed this, not knowing what sort of terror campaign the Volantenes could unleash before ultimately being brought down. Malassos Borroro lost his sword hand when he tried to fight his way out of his personal quarters. The rest of his supporters made a pathetic spectacle of the dying breath of their insurrection, some being caught in really compromising (and disturbing) postures.

Fortunately for the captured Volantenes, the diverse alliance overseeing their fate was not interested to see how they fared in single combat against Viserion (also known as lunch time for the well-fed dragon). Unfortunately for them, their threats and the initial refusal of the generous terms offered by Regent Missandei had made the final judgement worse, not better. The Borroro, Soderro and all the parties having violated the laws of the Targaryen Empire were sentenced to forced labour for the rest of their lives at Slaver's Bay, with no hope of seeing their sentence diminished. Many found the irony striking: the descendants of the Freehold were going to trim and die in a region which had been ravaged by their ancestors.

This was certainly not the only insurrection or provocation the new regime created by Queen Daenerys Targaryen and pursued by her senior advisors faced from 305AC to 310AC. Two years later, the abandoned city of Nar Mell would host a band of insurgents named the Mourning Sons, led by a band of 'sellswords' which were certainly belonging to the old aristocracy of Volantis. Five revolts took place in the Upper Rhoyne delta, with heavy suspicions that Norvos and Qohor were acting behind the scenes, providing hundreds of swords, spears, shields and bows in order to disturb Targaryen rule. On the western frontier, Myrish commanders acting 'independently' of their official orders launched raids on isolated outposts. Hundreds of war bands plagued the road between the very badly damaged Mantarys and Meereen. The Ghiscari and the remnant of the fleets having participated in the conflict against the Mother of Dragons were still at sea, although most had evolved by then to a point the great majority were virtually impossible to differentiate from cut-throat pirates.

These threats were going to be crushed one by one, as history remembers it to this day. Unlike the Westerosi kingdoms, Free City and Republic who ordered their troops to go back home for a few years, the Targaryen Empire kept a large number of men under arms, though one might argue it had the largest number of effectives in the first place (save pre-war Yi-Ti perhaps but the Golden Empire was hardly next door).

Soon, Myr learnt two could play the same games when their 'enthusiast' young officers got annihilated by a khalasar having emerged from nowhere. Ten thousands barbarians crossed the frontier under a certain 'Khal Maqo', sacked a town, freed the slaves, beheaded the leading council of the city and disappeared in the vast plains like they had never existed. The Myrish emissaries sent to Volantis demanded explanations, but the Targaryen diplomats who received them delivered their sincerest apologies for not controlling every parcel of land they claimed. Though Regent Missandei's subordinates told them it was going to change.

Those were not empty words. The insurrection attempted at Nar Mell was crushed by the fast-moving reaction force stationed near the Volaena which had just finished giving the traitor Triarchs properties and businesses to far more deserving owners. Existing sellsword companies of the Lower Rhoyne were quickly assimilated in the regular army paid by the new government of Volantis, which had lost a lot of its members in the last fortnights.

Unlike the Free Cities it had taken lands and fields from, the Targaryen Empire authorities were not interested in having a large number of companies working for whoever had the gold to demand their services. Yes, at the moment the Targaryen coffers were the ones concentrating the biggest wealth of Essos, but everyone knew this was only a momentarily advantage. The other Free Cities were rebuilding, and the prospect of seeing thousands of veterans join the ranks of their enemies was not an acceptable one for the freedmen and the Volantenes.

General Grey Worm had finally recovered from his injuries sustained in the battles fought in the Vale, and made quite clear the old mercenary practises were going to cease. Every person of importance in the Empire had the right to pay for bodyguards of course, but by a decree redacted in 305AC the upper limit for a family save the Imperial one was now fixed to four score. Four score of men under the condition the citizen paid his taxes in due time. There would be only one force in the Targaryen Empire: the Imperial army. Sellswords could join them or find another manner to live their life.

East of Volantis, this declaration caused little trouble. Shahaz mo Khandaq and the high authorities of Meereen had not left many nobles alive, and the former population of slaves had either decided to take arms themselves or were confident in the dragon banners to protect their lives. East of the Rhoyne, in the regions closely associated with the infamous Disputed Lands, the story was an entire matter altogether. Many small cities, villages and important merchant companies had lived for generations in the sellsword system: recruiting young men to fight in battles whose outcome was meaningless, bringing vegetables, fruit, meat and fish to feed the tens of thousands men fighting and even forging the steel ambitious generals bought. This was an economy of endless war, which had sustained itself for centuries (truces since the Doom had rarely lasted more than a couple of years and been obvious opportunities to rearm).

Without sellswords, the system collapsed. Lys and Tyrosh were too tired to fight by the time against any enemy by the time a peace treaty was signed. Norvos and Qohor were too far away...and they were more inclined to recruit for their own city guards in the name of efficiency. If the Targaryen Empire didn't want to hire sellswords, then thousands of men were going to find themselves without an occupation. This was bad for the income of the war traders. Men and women selling food had obviously no fear to find themselves sleeping in the stables next night, but master-at-arms, sergeant recruiters and weapon traders did not have that chance. While some smiths ceased to fabricate spears and warhammers for farmers' tools, soldiers and their associates who had fought since their twelfth name day had lost their patrons. Unavoidably, the area soon exploded in violence, and an army of sellswords naming itself the Silver Princes were defeated decisively by an army of Unsullied led by General Grey Worm.

Yet for each region which went in flames, the opponents dreaming to see the Targaryen Empire falling apart saw their hopes dashed. The nobility resisted yes, and some insurrections or contestation movements managed to last a couple of years before their union disintegrated. But at no moment there was a real possibility of destroying the imperial ideology. This was the deadly consequence of having over half of the population living in slavery (many free families were not exactly living in luxurious accommodations too). For those people, the gratitude of abolishing slavery was carrying everything else...and the fact the reforms carried by Regent Missandei were giving power to them and depriving their former oppressors of theirs was an excellent outcome.

When a rebellion was over, hundreds if not thousands of freedmen moved in the area to settle it, and the records made clear there were far more productive on average than the ones having inherited it by an accident of birth. Garrisons loyal to the young Empress spread thorough the land, contributing to an increase in security and stability. Canals were built to boost the navigation, the most famous encircling the ruins of Sar Mell and preventing many floods in the Rhoynar delta. Harvest fields were expanded to the horizon and further. The fleets which had been scuttled, sunk or burnt were rebuilt, with Triarch Laenyr subsiding out of her own family's treasury the growth of several forests north-east of the Volaena (a far clever decision, which has made the Laenyr name synonym with near-royalty even hundreds of years later). Pirates were pursued to extinction in Slaver's Bay and the Orange Shore, allowing the fishermen to return at sea in good conditions. By 310AC it was safe to say the Targaryen Empire, no matter how many hundreds of doom prophets had predicted its soon-to-come demise, was going to live. In fact some started to say its prosperity was starting to reach a point that the pre-Doom Freehold would soon have a challenger in the minds and hearts of the Essossi.

One of the important issues was of course what role the Dothraki had to play in the future of the new Empire. In all fairness, the horse-masters of the endless eastern plains had sometimes been able to integrate and sharing their customs with the local citizens of the regions they had conquered. These examples of union between Valyrian and Dothraki culture were rare and few between unfortunately. As the Dothraki role as enforcers and their insane casualties rate spread in the minds of the Imperial subjects, many merchants and adventurers had argued rather violently to make sure 'the Dothraki problem' was dealt with. Seeing entire villages be slaughtered, the women raped and the survivors sold into slavery was a good way to remind everyone the pre-Daenerys Targaryen Dothraki culture had been the next best thing to an end of times which could come upon a defenceless town. Even reformists coming from Volon Therys or other Volantene cadet cities who acclaimed the anti-slavery stance were far more reluctant to tolerate the Dothraki. The scorched earth tactics used to end some rebellions gave them the nickname "death winds", with traitors and rogue sellswords commander taking their own lives rather than being taken prisoner. Furthermore, the Dothraki who had not bent the knee to the Mother of Dragons were sometimes riding westwards or southwards, the murderous conflict of khals versus khals evidently not over. Paying the Imperial Dothraki to go back to their nation and continue the divide had not been very popular. A war on the horse-born barbarians terrain of predilection was unwinnable. But as the Empire expanded eastwards, a political solution would have to be found.

The other issue was the official religion of the Empire. At the beginning of the 310s with a Regent not known to share her religious views, the Imperial realm was looking more and more like Braavos at its prime. The Faith made a return on the lands near Pentos, and with dispossessed and slaves of a hundred realms having taken residence in Volantis and Meereen, hundreds of temples were built to different deities. The only religion to be outright banned in the Targaryen laws was the Cult of the Harpy; an interdiction which has never been repelled and in all probability never will, with the Makaros incident of 395AC serving as a firm souvenir of religious atrocities. That did not mean the Regent and the Senate which was elected in the Great Vote of 311AC were going to let magicians roam the realm without control. Like the Edict of Maegor in the Seven Kingdoms, no religious order was given the right to carry arms. And the number of sorcerers was controlled by a very bothersome bureaucracy.

The decade passed, and soon the time came for a new Empress to be crowned...


	121. Dark Crusade

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own the North, Winterfell or Skagos.

Paul: Oh, the book is about Marwyn. Tyrion is a hero, and as such his life is only epicness and badassery, not sin. The Lannister aren't going to criticize one of the main reasons they were still tolerated in Westeros after the war...

Yes, the new Empress is bonded with a newborn dragon. Daenerys and Missandei looted quite a few books on magical lore, and the conquests allowed them to recruit or to know the whereabouts of several mages. Given that Viserion survived the conflict, finding a highly magical area and servants for a draconic ritual was no big problem...

Glad you liked the Harpy's ban and the political issues.

X59: Thanks! Yeah, Laenyr is a cold-blooded politician of Volantis, a lot of rulers in history lack the vision and the pragmatism to govern...

thepkrgmc: Oh, Missandei is definitely a far better administrator than Daenerys ever was. Not surprising considering their education, their different priorities...plus the Mother of Dragons had her reptiles to negotiate. You're right however the empire to come is far less brittle than it would have been in another scenario.

raw666: Interesting comparison...of course the fact there were no Targaryen in age to govern during that period means the Regent was here while no Empress or Emperor were in age to rule. But yes, the first years of consolidation were not done by any dragonrider.

yesboss21: Nice theory about the Green Men. I will see if I follow on it or not.

 **Dark Crusade**

 **The North and the Long War Part I**

" _The sad truth is this conflict will only end when one of the two sides will have exterminated the other. Humans and Others can't coexist, and most of the fault can be put on the damned souls of the latter.._." Queen Cassana Baratheon, 344AC.

" _The Princess leads the Northern forces. The Starks reclaim their place at the forefront of the war against the Others_." Report of Maester Osric on the First Dark Crusade, 307AC.

" _I always knew they were going to come back..._ " Lord Commander Eddison 'Dolorous Edd' Tollett, 307AC.

When the Long Night ended and the Others were repulsed beyond the ruins of the Night's Watch fortresses and the Wall's breach, the North was one of the realms having suffered the most from the White Walkers exactions, with only the Vale as a close challenger.

Thousands of men, women and children had died as the abominations came southwards with their armies of the dead. Fortresses and holdfasts which had been built to resist the fury of the elements had been destroyed. Granaries full of meat, flour and other edible supplies had been buried under frost and snow when they weren't collapsed by vengeful Others. And to freeze the spirits of the Northerners further, no one knew if the Others were really gone by 304AC. The sentinels left to patrol the approaches of the Wall reported no enemy movement, but given the immensity of the Haunted Forest and the lands existing Beyond-the-Wall, smallfolk and highborn took these good news with a pinch of suspicion. After all, the ice warriors had reappeared from nowhere after millennia of absence, who knew where they hid now and in what strength?

The answer to this question was undoubtedly what motivated King Robb Stark and his main bannersmen to launch the strategy the historians called 'the Iron Circle' when winter abated and the better days came back. There was urgency to do so: White Harbor and Winterfell, the core citadels having resisted against the abominations, were overcrowded and could not stay that way eternally before diseases and trouble spread amongst the Northern population. Thus the new strategy, whose main objective was to repopulate the lands delimited by the castles and cities of Winterfell, Torrhen's Square, Barrowton, Hornwood, White Harbor and Ramsgate. The theatre would be surrounded by defensive structures and outposts of the Northern army, with the ability to harass and destroy any enemy coming from northwards and the seas. In turn, it means investments to enlarge the naval installations of White Harbor and Ramsgate, plus the rebuilding of Widow's Watch in a modern fashion.

All of this was going to cost a lot of money of course. Several mines on House Manderly and House Ryswell domains provided the silver, with new ones in the Western Peaks and east of Long Lake providing gold in limited quantities. Large wood purchases made by the Braavosi were expedited in record time while they would have been refused a decade ago. Furs which had been ready to be traded for the next decades would be sold on a matter of years.

The Northern lords had not the choice though. If they wanted their properties and lands be considered a powerful force, they had to redouble their efforts. Already in the south the Riverlands were recovering at an impressive rate, a rebuilding helped by the fact the terrible winter ended near the Trident nearly six moons before it did at Moat Cailin.

To participate in all their projects, the Starks and their bannersmen needed manpower. A lot of it and preferably yesterday. The problem was the distances involved and the reputation of cold lands the Northern realm was the recipient of. The immediate stop of the hostilities allowed hundreds of volunteers the opportunity to move northwards but in never sufficient numbers. Despite the cheap land grants, the taxes reduction and other powerful incentives, Riverlanders, Westerners and Eastern Marchers did not show an eagerness to become new settlers north of the Neck.

The risk of the Others trying to conquer and provoke a new Long Night played an important role, but there were also doom prophecies made by communities of very conservative septons, furious the new Faith promoted thorough the Kingdom of the North and the Trident was finding acceptation.

By a strange turn of irony, it was consequently resolute Essossi who came first to rebuild the abandoned villages. Many Tyroshi, Myrish, Lysene or inhabitants of the lands conquered by the Targaryen Empire were seeking a new haven of peace, and the North was the next best thing to a paradise for them. That the promised land practised no slavery and did not demand a conversion to the local religion (although in practise many would worship the New or the Old Gods) made the deal sweeter. As the damage of the Second Long Night was progressively erased, a relatively modest flux of newcomers participated in the construction of about two scores of villages along the Bite, putting the foundations of what was to be a very populated area. The North was not going to surpass the Reach in numbers and wealth, but the ambitions of House Stark had been far more modest than this anyway. Returning to the levels of 298AC was the first milestone, then the lords and their sworn smallfolk would worry about surpassing it.

Of course there were other preoccupations to deal with. The defences of Last Hearth, Bear Island and Karhold had to be increased. While the White Knife and the large plains stretching from the hills of Hornwood to the Barrowlands were re-settled, these northern citadels were to become the first line of defences should a new champion of the Great Other rise to crush humanity. The remnants of the Night's Watch and the first recruits of the Order of the Dawn mounted guard at the Wall, but they had not the capacities to block the White Walkers should a new war begin. Mounting a credible defence there would require stationing garrisons of tens of thousands men, and no kingdom, empire or republic having participated in the Last Alliance was ready for such a monumental project. For the next decade, the defence of the Gift and the neighbouring forests and mountains was conceived to be a defence-in-depth. The large seats of House Umber, Karstark and Mormont would bleed the White Walkers stupid enough to come back for a second round. And in the middle months of 306AC the construction of a new castle commenced in the former New Gift, now reunited with the Stark Kingdom. Princess Arya Stark was to become its new lady, though the name of Direwolf's Rest was not to be pronounced for several years.

The Bolton regency was a major political issue to deal with too. Originally, it had been thought that the mother of the infant-Lady Arranna Bolton Marianne would take care of the regency, supported by members of House Frey. Sadly the senior captains of the Dreadfort and the Twins were not born to tolerate each other, and by 305AC the lands near the Weeping Water had seen a series of curious and tragic accidents happen. After the death of Steffon 'the Sweet' Frey and one of his illegitimate cousins named Walder, the royal couple of Winterfell decided to stop there the mummery and name a man they could trust. The competition was particularly disputed, Houses like Manderly, Hornwood, Karstark and Ryswell each pushing for their own candidates. The 'prize' of the game was influence over the Heiress of the Dreadfort, and House Bolton was still one of the main Noble Houses of the North. Ultimately, the acrimony between the different factions pleading their cause at Winterfell went on and made sure none of the senior contestants were chosen. The title of Dreadfort Regent was given to Brandon Waterman, a solid captain of troops known to be part of Queen Val Stark's advisors. Half of the Frey delegation returned to the Riverlands, and the absence of murders after one year of intendancy convinced everyone the problem had been dealt with.

By that point, many merchants and other taxpayers pleaded for a return to normalcy and especially to a year of fewer demands from their sovereign. The Others hypothetical counter-attack had remained just that, hypothetical, the wights had been purged from all the accessible locations though there were rumours of some persisting in the remote ones. Ships of all categories had been rebuilt to approximately three-fifths of the 298AC levels. Five hundred smallfolk of the Red Fork lands were travelling the Kingsroad to settle in the Barrowlands.

But the year 307AC to come was going to be singular in several aspects. Indeed since the defeat of the Night's Queen at the hands of Queen Ygritte, the years had oddly coincided with the passage of seasons. 303AC had been a year of light winter for example. 304AC was a season of spring, 305AC was summer and predictably 306AC was autumn, at the great disappointment of the eternal optimists having thought a new Long Summer was going to continue.

307AC heralded the return of winter for Westeros. It was far from a terrible one: the southernmost point experiencing snowfall was Wickenden, and in this Vale castle the white mantle was not high enough to slow the walk of a healthy woman or man. Still, temperatures dropped considerably, people hid in their homes, burnt branches and logs and prayed for this winter to end quickly.

It was in the third moon of 307AC that the hopes of humanity that the White Walkers and their sinister deity had been utterly and totally defeated were shattered. Provoking the drift from several small icebergs of the Shivering Sea, a warband of thirty Others controlling five hundred wights launched a surprise assault on the island of Skagos.

The human patrols stationed there had been frequent and well organised, with plenty of obsidian weapons in the armouries. With a force of two hundred soldiers drawn from Karstark, Woolfield and Bolton men-at-arms, the Northern defenders were not overtaken as the Others had no doubt expected. However, this was a far more impressive show of force than they had been supposed to deal with, especially as this archipelago had had its last wight exterminated in 305AC.

One of the two warships available departed in emergency for the continent, with the frightening message the Others were coming back (and several ice projectiles embedded in the hull to prove it). Reinforcements were needed to stop the Great Enemy yet again. Skirmishers were left behind with the majority of the patrol supplies, with orders to bleed the White Walkers in hit-and-run attacks.

Yet precautions had been taken for such an eventuality. On the western and eastern coasts, hundreds of alarm fires were lit on, and at Karhold a new army was mustered to take back Skagos. At their head was Princess Arya Stark, followed by several giant direwolves.

The first Dark Crusade was about to begin.

Compared to the forces having bled and died in the Second Long Night, the forces in presence were small. In totality, the Others were never able to muster more than fifty of their lethal swordsmen, limiting themselves by the same occasion the number of wights which would be raised to fight the eternal struggle of life and death.

Similarly, the human troops sent to the resumption of hostilities were far from a grand and endless armada. The Northern troops under Princess Arya and her terrifying direwolf Nymeria were in the vicinity of five thousand men, with twenty ships, not all of them built for war. The Storm Kingdom contributed with three warships and near five hundred men. Braavos provided eight ships and plenty of supplies, but remained tight-pursed with the numbers, sending only two companies of their marine infantry.

As a result, the White Walkers were definitely outnumbered when the Westerosi and Essossi landed on the Skagosi grey-stoned beaches. That said, a majority of veterans, beginning with the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch Edd 'Dolorous' Tollett, were expecting the fight to be vicious and without quarter, preparing their men for the onslaught. They were not disappointed. The Others had changed their tactics, the entity or entities in charge having noticed the mass charges were less and less efficient against veteran human troops. Instead, small-sized units of an Other coupled with a score or so of wights were now forming ambush groups, attacking in the blizzards or every weather allowing the dead to sneak undetected. The campaign to liberate the island was ferocious and merciless, further complicated by the issue of the White Walkers landing other wights on Skane and the neighbouring islands. Lord Harrion Karstark had proclaimed the alliance would expulse the Others back to their glacial homeland in a fortnight. In reality the heavy fighting went on for close to three moons, and was generally a brutal reminder for everyone how close humanity had come to defeat in the Long Night.

Obviously the final outcome was not in doubt this time. Humanity had the numbers, large stocks of obsidian and was sending a mix of experimented and new warriors in the cauldron of war. That the Others were becoming more prudent and cautious was not of a nature to upset the balance. Dragons, powerful sorcerers, ice spiders or huge wights would have been needed to accomplish their revenge...but none were seen on Skagos during that period. And with it the fate of the campaign was sealed. On the eight moon of 307AC, a score of Others supported by less than a hundred wights was seen escape on an iceberg. The clashes soon ended after this event.

Skagos was back in the Kingdom of the North and the Trident's bosom, but few commanders doubted anymore that new Others troops were regrouping in the frozen wastes of the Lands of Always Winter. Some knights and freeriders whispered in dark tones when spring came back the next year that this offensive had only been a test. New winter armies were possibly created as they spoke, waiting for a weakness in humanity's armour, preying upon the weak and preparing the next wars to annihilate the living under their cold embrace. While few fell to despair at these words, the uncomfortable truth was that no one knew. Behind the shadow of Brandon the Builder's ruined edifice, legions of monsters could wait for a Third Long Night.

Or they could be only ragged remnants of the Night's Queen followers. The only way to know was to go Beyond-the-Wall. In force. For better or for worse, the war against the Others was going to enter a new phase. An endless phase, formalising the nickname Northern men-at-arms found when they followed their Princess in the cold forests and hills formerly inhabited by the wildlings. There were many justifications spoken to march again in this direction. Avenge the massacres of Hardhome and the Fist of the First Men. Find Prince Brandon Stark. Monitor the wights numbers and the White Walkers intentions. Plenty of words said, enough to fill entire books, to the point many historians have debated hundreds of hours on the subject in the last century. In a way, one might argue it doesn't matter.

The Long War continues to burn in the hearts of men and Others alike...


	122. Empresses of the East

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own Yi-Ti, the God-Emperor or the Five Forts.

Paul: Since the wildlings are a mustering of hundreds of clans (well those that survived at least), they won't be settled in a single place. Those who will follow Val above all are going to live in the lands around Winterfell. The men and women having trader and bartering tendencies will find someplace to live near the White Knife I suspect. And the ones wanting to go back to their ancient traditions will try Skagos or somewhere in the regions of Direwolf's Rest or Last Heart. Of course, it is going to create some conflicts...

The Others underestimate the reaction time of the humans. Remember that at first their attacks on the wildlings went totally unopposed for several months if not years. They wanted to start gradually to replenish their ranks. It didn't work...

X59: Thanks! And no, the Northerners aren't taking any chance this time around. Not knowing the size of the White Walkers threat, they managed to stop them at the Bloody Gate. There is no way they are going to give them a second chance to triumph.

The White Walkers aren't responsible for the long seasons, it's their master the Great Other who bears this responsibility. However, it would be more accurate to say all the gods intervening in the mortal realms are the culprits. For the moment, there are weakened by their fighting and the seasons are more or less stable.

thepkrgmc: Indeed. The time of massive and straightforward battles is over, no size having particularly the will or the means to commit them on the battlefield. In summer, the lands of the Haunted Forest are not exactly the Others home. But the further you go northwards, the most powerful they become. And in winter, they are of course at the apex of their powers...

Diving in: No they can't, this is Westeros after all...and if they were sane, they wouldn't have produced wildfire in the first place.

 **Empresses of the East**

 **Tales of the Long Night Part V**

" _Relations with Yi-Tish women are always interesting_." Prince Rickon 'the Wild Wandering Direwolf' Stark, 330AC.

" _Opportunities like this knocks at the door only once_." God-Emperor Lo Qin, 302AC.

" _One man's disaster is a woman's delight_." Attributed to Lan Mu 'the Blue Dragoness', 302AC.

The Shai'tans had at last been defeated in the East. The sun had come back. Humanity had triumphed. Yet the Yi-Tish felt very little joy at the idea. No mistake, not being under the threat of monstrous ash-warriors anymore was a good thing. The problem was that in a staggering number of cases, certain human factions had proved far more cruel and vicious than the abominations. Unlike Westeros, a lot of magical lore had persisted in the theatre long after the Doom of Valyria. This source of unnatural power could have done great things in disinterested hands. But it was the opposite outcome which had happened. A great majority of the sorcerers, witches, wind priests, jungle warlocks and hundreds of minor groups had seized the opportunity to satisfy their power thirst. And the magical had been far from the only ones to attempt usurpation or insurrection. From isolated garrisons to great generals, the number of power grabs had defied imagination. Practically every noble of importance had thrown his forces under the banners of a God-Emperor, whether it was an orange, azure or yellow one. Magnificent cities had been pillaged and stormed so often they were now nothing more than rubble. The parallel with the ruins of King's Landing in Westeros was definitely there.

This point asserted, the fractured realms half a world away had at least managed to summon a Great Council and settle their grievances in a non-violent manner. The Golden Empire had not that option available. To begin with, where would this hypothetical conference be held? The ancient capital of Yin was not suitable, having been ravaged by the orange and yellow attacks. Certain cities in the west like Asabhad were standing, but they were too far removed and in the hands of orange loyalists. The eastern cities had been sacked and despoiled. What the Sorcerer of Carcosa had not perverted and killed, the Shai'tan invasion had done an excellent job in annihilating.

There was also a distinct lack of command structure. General Wai Liu, Promised Prince and Hero of the Dawn was dead. Now his sons wanted the throne they thought was theirs to rule. There was some merit in these proposals, as Wai Liu had indeed had some imperial blood flowing in his veins. The problem was that there had been other nobles with far more prestigious claims. Many were dead and buried – or had their ashes scattered to the wind – but a few had survived and when they heard of the issues, started to put forward their own candidacies to the position of God-Emperor.

These proclamations were met with profound disdain by the veterans of the Tai Pei's holocaust. Thousands of proud warriors had bled and fought to their last breath the Shai'tans in a conflict that was believed to be lost from the very beginning. And now nobles who had scurried in the deepest hole they could find where resurfacing and expecting them to give them the throne? That was not going to pass. Oh, no. Yi-Ti was a strong empire –or at least the ruins of one – and would not stand being governed by cowardly imbeciles. To be crowned God-Emperor, one had to be a hero.

The nobles and the eight heirs of Wai Liu had an answer all ready of course. Of the seven great Heroes recognised by the armies, only two were left and none were a man. Customs, tradition and good sense prevented obviously that a woman be chosen to occupy the throne. The Yi-Tish people were not the Jogos Nhai, thank you very much. Gathering in a city of tens several hundred leagues south of Tai Pei, highborn men debated who was going to become divine.

These comments went a long way in darkening the atmosphere and revealed how far from the reality the dreams of these aristocrats had been. Ancient customs of Yi-Ti had taken an enormous beating in the last half-decade, mainly for the reason the princes and the great land-owners were the first to violate them. It was true there had been no female God-Emperor since the First Long Night millennia ago, though writings were sparse and not very accurate on the reasons of this dynastic discrimination. But it was true that women were forbidden to carry weapons and fight to the men's sides too. By tradition, asking a man to serve a female officer was shameful and dishonourable, implying men had failed at their duty of guardians and protectors. Tempers began to run hot. The nobles having not been involved in the last titanic battle strongly implied the generals left had slept with Sun San the Bloody Flower and Lan Mu the Blue Dragoness to gain their commands. The experienced officers explained the single proof of their bodies still breathing was evidence enough their competence was not disputable, unlike certain parties. Out of patience, a coalition formed and proclaimed Wai Liu's eldest son God-Emperor, arguing they had the biggest army of this Empire under their command. There was a new Scarlet Emperor – which would made him the 44th of this dynasty - all had to bow and submit to his rule.

Lo Qin, since it was the regal name of the new claimant, was not met by over-ecstatic crowds. Even among the nobility, less than half of the men supported him. However the other factions were too divided to form a proper counter-balance. The supporters of Lo Qin concluded everything was the best in the best of the worlds and celebrated the godly elevation of their chosen one.

Their acclamations were alas very premature.

In a very short amount of time, the Yi-Tish nobles had done a lot of huge mistakes. The first major one was undoubtedly to recreate the 'Scarlet' dynasty. Not far from the north there was an impressive mustering of Jogos Nhai, and those ferocious cavalrymen had developed an aversion to this colour after Lo Bu's campaign of atrocities centuries ago. The second one was to forget that while they had a new God-Emperor, the lands he was supposed to reign upon were in majority garrisoned by former Azure commanders who had until that point followed the seven Great Heroes. The third was to think for one second the two surviving Great Heroes were going to let them pursue this path without dire consequences. According to rumours circulating in the soldier's ranks, Wai Liu had once qualified Sun San of 'bloodthirsty whore' and Lan Mu of 'implacable bitch'. Or was it the inverse? Scores of victories against humans and Shai'tans, the two women had not gotten softer. Sun San and Lan Mu were not exactly friends, their ambitions and their habits being too different for that to be the case. But now the deadly duo had a common enemy they were willingly to crush mercilessly.

Those in the know knew this was not going to end without bloodshed, and they were right.

The day after the coronation of Lo Qin saw thousands of men refuse to swear allegiance to the new Scarlet God-Emperor. The twenty-year old sovereign ordered the traitors to be arrested immediately. In a parade march, the Scarlet infantry walked towards the tents of Sun San officers, where the core of the contestation had started.

War horns blared, and the herald of Lo Qin screamed in a high pitch for the soldiers of the Bloody Flower to surrender or die. Fifteen hundred arrows were shot just as this sentence had been spoken. The Scarlet soldiers lacked the ruthlessness and the experience to deal with such a dangerous situation. Two-thirds of them were already dead when the second arrow volley flew in the sky. The cavalry charge in the aftermath wiped out the lone individuals having saved their lives by sheer luck.

The Scarlet nobles heard the screams of ongoing battle. They knew their long-life ambitions of ingratiating themselves with someone of higher standing were dying as they looked westwards. Some tried to flee, realising pragmatically their green infantry had little chance against to win against a force having battled the demons of legend. A few courageous souls buckled their armour and their protection, openly shouting they were going to fight to the death.

It wasn't exactly important, as Lan Mu and her force of ten thousand soldiers rushed into their camp with the speed and the force of a hurricane. Coming from eastwards, the warriors sworn to the Blue Dragoness arrived unopposed into the Scarlet base. The effect was devastating, hundreds of men being stabbed and hacked to death before they had realised they were overrun.

Lo Qin had boasted before his aristocratic patrons that despite his young age, his leader skills were on par with his defunct father's. In a fluid slaughter like the one happening around him, these words were revealed to be empty as the wind. Azure elite forces used their archers like it was training, and their enemies were looking like hedgehogs at the end. The long spears of the cavalry tore apart the panicked soldiers. The nobles forgot completely the chain of command (assuming of course they had bothered agreeing on one in the first place) and generated plenty of confusion when their captains received ten set of commands at the same time.

And when the beleaguered infantry was more than ready to throw their weapons away and surrender, a sizeable force of Jogos Nhai arrived from the north and destroyed their last echoes of resistance. The battle turned into butchery. Councillors, eunuchs and numerous influential men were killed where they stood, the foundations of a possible Scarlet Empire's renewal dying with them.

Lo Qin in a desperate move, challenged Lan Mu to fight him in duel. Like his army, the God-Emperor did not last long and was killed in less time it took the Blue Dragoness to dismount from her horse. The life of the 44th Scarlet Emperor ended there, at the edge of a sabre. It was the shortest reign of a God-Emperor in Yi-Tish history. As a reward for their help, the Jogos Nhai took his skull. They still continue using it at the yearly ceremonies along with those of other enemies today.

Deprived of leader, formations all over the plains changed their allegiance in a hurry. It was as several Conficist thinkers affirmed, against all traditions and customs. It was the terrifying principle of might over right: neither Lan Mu nor Sun San had any drop of godly blood coming from their ancestors. Those who did not escape or chose to bend the knee in time were executed. When the sun set, illuminating in red the spectacle of this short civil war, there were only two persons left to claim the supreme title. All the others contestants had abandoned their rights.

Many men had expected one of the Heroes to agree to service the other, but apparently it was not to be. Instead, the Blue Dragoness and the Bloody Flower divided the Empire between each other, while at the same time agreeing new frontiers with the steppes clans.

Lan Mu demanded and obtained the coastal territories of the west, which included Yin and the rest of the 'Golden Core' ruined by the three-way civil war. It went without saying that when the negotiations happened, a large number of cities weren't under Azure control (some were not under human control by the way: man-beasts of the jungles had devoured the inhabitants). Sun San claimed the lands east of Jinqi, the provinces which had first fallen against the armies of Chai Cao. The same pattern would be repeated several times in this improvised council: the Dragoness took possession of the majority of the western territories, while her rival took the northern and north-eastern holdfasts. Due to the Long Night, both leaders and their banners would participate in the reconstruction of the Five Forts, and Lan Mu received a corridor to reach the fortifications without setting a foot in foreign territory. Little wonder then the generals in the fortnights which followed talked of a 'Western Golden Empire' and 'Eastern Golden Empire'. It did not stop the two female Heroes to proclaim themselves God-Empresses on their coronation days, though.

The time of unification for Yi-Ti was definitely gone. The Jogos Nhai took everything north of what the Yi-Tish didn't take, pushing well beyond Nefer in former N'Ghai territory.

It was with a certain justice that the local historians-keepers remarked not everything was decided in a day or even a moon. Leng corsairs raided the shores, and would prove a nuisance for several decades. The last Orange loyalists would have to be punished for their rebellion in the west, and the same was true for those who had harboured Scarlet, Yellow or darker sympathies.

But following their meeting, the forces of Lan Mu and Sun San divided themselves in two great snake-like flows, never to be reunited again. Similarly, the two God-Empresses would not see each other again for the rest of their existence, although both are buried with the rest of the Great Heroes at the Tai Pei sanctuary, the holiest place of Yi-Ti.

Reconstruction for the two empires was going to be long and difficult. At every level, the Yi-Tish society had lost its best and brightest, and would struggle during decades to replicate artworks, castles and cities which had before demanded little to no supervision in maintenance. Lan Mu architects took decades to rebuilt Yin to its former greatness, and in fact it was under the God Empress great-daughter the new palace version was declared finished. Sun San took an easier road: after a few months trying to see if there was any point in rebuilding Jinqi, the God-Empress of the East ordered for a totally new city to be build in an empty location. A decade later, this would result in the formal inauguration of Li'yuan.

All these news arrived in a rather dispersed and erratic manner to our Westerosi shores. There were always six or seven ships travelling to the distant Golden Empire in normal times, but the presence of pirates, the cataclysms, the chaos reigning in Yi-Ti and in Essos, the tightening of regulations imposed by the Qarthene...all these factors made sure that whatever news arrived in the harbours of the Storm Kingdom were outdated and difficult to understand. It would not be until Rickon Stark's return that the Westerosi lords and ladies would have a better understanding of what had happened in the Far East. A new wing in the Summerhall library would be opened for the occasion (though most of them are copies as the original records went to Winterfell) and for a few years there was an oriental fascination developing, helped by the Wandering Direwolf's adventures. But only for a few years. The memories of the Second Long Night progressively died, as did the heroes who had fought against the Others. And there were far more pressing problems closer to home...


	123. Living Free

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own the Vale, the Eyrie or the Bloody Gate.

Paul: Some wildlings went to the Vale, because the Queen there is a Free Folk and the predominance of the Faith there has been for all intent and purposes shattered. For the Riverlands, there are a few, but only in the lands governed by Old Gods followers like the Blackwoods. Elsewhere, no, the most radical septons have poisoned the atmosphere and denounced them as heretics...

There were survivors with better claims, but they had not enough troops to back them. And military might in this age is what really matters...

The nobles were in the mode 'we vanquished the demons while the azure dynasty could not'. Thus, a new colour, and given the torrents of blood caused by the conflict, scarlet seemed appropriate. They did not think a lot further than that...

Thank you for your support. Hope you will enjoy the next chapters.

X59: Inheritance for inheritance was bad for the Yi-Tish succession, no doubt about it, especially since the candidate had none of his father's qualities and skills.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Rickon Stark may be not as ruffian-like as Jack Sparrow with his entourage though...

thepkrgmc: In fact, these new empires are far less stable than the Westerosi ones. When the Baratheons or the Stark says a land belongs to them, they indeed control it. It's not exactly the case with Yi-Ti.

yesboss21: Ibben and the Summer Isles are among the rare places on Planetos where nothing of a military nature happened. The cataclysms having ravaged the world have severely curtailed the number of pirates and aggressive nations wishing them ill. As for the forest kingdom...they were a bit in the middle of Dothraki quarrels, so they have taken nasty shocks.

Gremlin Jack: Thanks!

And now we return to the Vale...

 **Living Free**

 **The Vale Rebuilds**

" _We fought the pale demons in this valley. We bled for it. My brother died for it. By all means name one of your knights to rule it. But the true Valemen stay here_." Anonymous clansmen, 305AC.

" _I love how your wife rules the Vale_." Princess Arya Stark to Consort Jon Snow, 320AC.

" _We will do our duty. But this going to end badly_." Lord Uthor Tollett, 307AC.

" _It's evident we are not in Dorne. Otherwise they would not ask who slept with the Queen_." Nymeria Sand, 308AC.

If someone had told a denizen of the fertile valleys in 297AC that in the next decade the main branch of House Arryn was going to end, Gulltown was going to be destroyed in a storm of violence, they would have a Free Folk Queen and half of their solid citadels would fall against the Others, this person would certainly have been denounced as a madman. And yet this was exactly what had happened. It had taken the Battle of the Last Alliance to break the armies of darkness, and even then the eastern kingdom of Westeros had been tethering at the edge of the abyss.

Like the Westerlands, the old order had been completely overturned. First Lord Jon Arryn, then his widow had died. The Lord Protector Yohn Royce had given his life to defend the Eyrie. Hundreds of knights, scores of highborn men and women had disappeared in the frozen nights of 301AC. Their successor after the defeat of the Night's Queen was to be Queen Ygritte of the new House Stormfire, with Commander Jon Snow as Prince Consort.

It was definitely a new era for the survivors of the Second Long Night. In the past, the Vale of Arryn had been an overwhelming Faith-worshipping population, with only a few Houses like the Royces and minor ancient households keeping their belief in the Old Gods. The First Men clans who had once resided in the Vale were during King Robert's era safely confined to the Mountains of the Moon. By 305AC, this religious and cultural situation which had lasted centuries was utterly shattered.

The surviving Moon clansmen had descended in the valleys to save their lives, the violence of the winter making impossible to survive in the high peaks. There were hundreds of Essossi exiles who had come voluntarily or not with the Targaryen host. There were remnants of Westerosi broken companies trying to find a new life in the theatre, their previous homes having been razed by the myriad of conflicts between 298 and 303AC.

From this chaos emerged a new rapport of strength, one having really few common points with the previous Arryn governance. Houses Corbray, Elesham, Pryor, Egen, Grafton, Waxley, Lipps, Moore, Templeton and Shett of Gulltown were gone. Many others had had their fortresses broken and their families reduced to a couple of individuals. The remnants of Torrent, Sunderland and Borrell passed under Winterfell governance.

In these circumstances, many expected Queen Ygritte to elevate enough proud warriors to highborn status to replace the dreadful losses. This was to forget their new monarch had been raised in the Free Folk culture, which believed the less people there were to bend the knee, the better. Venerating the Old Gods also meant formal royal knighthoods were granted only in exceptional cases. The reorganisation of the lands however was one of the first priorities put forwards by the diverse parties meeting at Old Anchor (said port having been designed temporary capital until the rebuilding of the Eyrie and the Gates of the Moon was over).

Lord Wallace Waynwood and his wife Lady Myranda Royce were confirmed in their lordship of Gulltown, but the legendary archer put some conditions: should two children or more come from this union, the cadet child would only have the title of Regent of the Gates of the Moon. House Stormfire regained the lordship along with the Eyrie and a sizeable portion of the Vale. Lord Mychel Redfort, married to Ysilla Royce, became officially the new Lord of Wickenden, managing the southernmost of the Vale and keeping an eye on the quarrelsome families of Cracklaw Point. House Melcolm and Waynwood remained the lords and masters of Old Anchor and Ironoaks (or in the case of the latter, the lady and master). Since Ser Morton had died during the Second Long Night, Lady Anya's new heir was her grandson Ser Roland. Ser Andar Royce became the new Lord of Runestone and was granted the non-hereditary title of Lord Protector of the Vale. By tradition, this role would stay in the House as long as the members of House Royce never faltered in their duty to defend the Vale.

The succession was not a problem in the Coldwater lands. Lady Kellia Coldwater was the last descendant of her line, and Coldwater Keep's contribution to the war effort ensured there was no protestation when the time came to give back the lands ravaged by the White Walkers.

More complicated were the cases of House Upcliff and House Corbray. The former had fought with House Grafton in the Battle of Gulltown, and only their seat being located on Witch Isle had allowed them to avoid the wrath of Lord Yohn Royce when the walls of Gulltown crumbled. There were a lot of whispers and advices at the court of Azor Ahai that this disloyalty should have consequences. House Upcliff had not fought against the Night's Queen minions. It had not participated in any noticeable manner to the transport of soldiers or supplies to the continent. In fact following their defeat and the death of Lady Lysa Arryn House Upcliff warriors had been extremely good at doing nothing.

No wonder then that the proposal put forth by Lord Horton Redfort to attain House Upcliff did not find any opponents. A majority of the battle-experienced Royce-Waynwood-Redfort coalition had never enjoyed letting one of their enemies stay so close to their domains. The inhabitants of Witch Isle had to be punished. For their inaction against the abominations if nothing else.

Rumours spreading at their usual speed, it was only a matter of days before Lord Dywen Upcliff himself with one of his brothers and his eldest son came at Old Anchor protest the totally unfair accusations levelled against him (from his point of view at least). Alas for Lord Dywen, neither the Queen nor the rest of the main lords were very impressed by the arguments coming out of his mouth. Prudence, keeping his strength to parry the Essossi armies and helping the refugees were very fine words, but there were many smallfolk and other witnesses nearby who could affirm this was a pack of lies. Lord Upcliff and his families had preyed on their former Arryn-supporter allies and invested in a small-scale pirate activity. Protestations and oaths came to nothing. Lord Dywen Upcliff was judged guilty by Queen Ygritte, who condemned him to join the Order of the Dawn. His two brothers and four sons would accompany him and participate in the Dark Crusades fought Beyond-the-Wall. Marq Belmore was to become the new master of Witch Isle, marrying Lord Dywen's eldest daughter Rowena to bolster his claims. With this decision the last embers of the civil war having left the Vale vulnerable (not to mention their neutrality in the War of the Eight Kings) were extinguished.

For the Corbray lands, the issue was not to administer a punishment. No one remained alive to be sentenced. The ancient line created by Andal warriors had left no legitimate heir behind. All three of the Corbray brothers were dead. These were hard facts, but the disaster caused by Lord Lyonel Corbray in the Battle of Heart's Home explained why the mourning was extremely limited. The Battle of the Frozen Tears had in part been lost due to the previous defeat, and many soldiers had lost a parent or a friend there. Sometimes both.

As a result, there was little motivation in Houses like Redfort, Royce, Belmore or Melcolm to find distant cousins of Lyn Corbray. The ambitious and the silver-tongued were more interested in proposing one of their relatives for the title. There was far more about Heart's Home than a single lordship at stake, though. Surrounding the ruins was the greatest concentration of Moon clansmen in the Vale. After the reclamation battles fought against the Others, the fierce mountain warriors had indeed settled there. While they had generally refrained from raiding their neighbours, it was accurate to say the situation was tense. Several old knights had come back to their ravaged forts and were quite enthusiastic to go back to the time where riding your horse and executing the sheep-stealers was done thrice a fortnight.

Several young men were eager to inflame the debate, promising that should they be elevated to the lordship, these foul-smelling outlaws would quickly go back to their snowy mountains. Under the incentive of spears and swords should persuasion by lengthy speeches didn't work.

It did not get better when Essossi and Gulltown refugees started to have their own ideas who should be granted the deserted fields and valleys.

Strange times necessitated esoteric solutions. Queen Ygritte named Lord Uthor Tollett Lord of Heart's Home, Shield of the Sunken Bay and Protector of the First Men. In the long-term, this would prove to be a judicious decision, the smallfolk and the clansmen accepting these pessimistic and fatalist highborn who believed the end always drew near. Heart's Home would not keep its name for long; in 309AC, the castle was officially renamed the Raven's Nest. House Tollett added the black raven to their familial banner at this occasion.

There was a lot of grumblings to greet this royal order. Many second or third-born sons had dreamt they, not the Tolletts, would be chosen. The strategists wondered this was the start of a plan imagined by the Queen to establish her domination upon the core areas of the Vale. The half-rebuilt castle of Grey Glen went back to the crown demesne, and now House Hunter was the sole Noble House showing a major presence in the largest valley of the East. The most astute criticised the new laws showing a tolerance with the clansmen traditions. Livestock stealing was not authorised, but there were now challenges and trials at every fair explaining the art and hobbies of the First Men.

A bone had to be thrown to the wolves of course. To silence some of the most vocal dissenters, the lands of House Lynderly were parcelled into a score or so of Knightly Houses. No man could affirm having received the biggest share of the pie, but one had been distributed. The point a third of the Vale would bicker with each other for decades while far more important and reformist edicts were passed did not escape the attention of some foreign observers.

Three city charters were delivered during that period. The first was for the rebuilt settlement of Gulltown, which had been deprived of this right by Lord Yohn Royce for a couple of years. Red Crab on the west-northern edge of the Bay of Crabs and Old Anchor would follow before the decade ended. The island of Longsister saw its self-autonomy be reduced decree after decree. For the traders and the fishermen whose interests lied with the sea, it became evident House Stormfire was not following the global naval disinterest of House Arryn.

It was an euphemism to say the new Vale dynasty made some enemies during these years of consolidation, and not all of those were content to sulk in the shadows. Of all the sovereigns and rulers of the continent between 304AC and 330AC, Queen Ygritte shared with First Citizen Sandor Clegane the dubious honour of being a prominent target for assassination attempts. Fifteen of them to be exact (at least these were the ones historians and maesters have managed to gather enough evidence on). In three cases, the attempts finished impaled on Lightbringer. R'hloor fanatics believing the Azor Ahai revealed was an impostor, soldiers disappointed their views weren't shared by the Queen, Essossi willing to climb to the top and overthrow the new order...the criminals came from varied background. But all ended dead in the attempt or executed by the Queen herself. The tradition of the Northerners that the man who orders the death has to take the life came that way to the Vale.

Forewarned by these failures violent opposition was not going to be a true success, the majority of the remaining opponents used rumours and second-hand accusations to spread trouble in the Vale. Reconstruction funds, disputed land claims, encroaching foreign influence, non-support of the Faith of Seven...there were a lot of issues in the Vale after the Others' ravages the dissenters felt they could use.

One edict in particular the loud-mouthed critics focused their efforts on was the nomination of Nymeria Sand to the command of the Bloody Gate. The post had been prestigious in the past; the fortress guarded what was supposed to be the only way to invade the Vale by land. After the Battle of the Last Alliance, to this strategic value was added the memorial one, hundreds of poor and wealthy pilgrims wanting to meditate on the heroes graves. In the opinion of traditionalists, the Knight had to be a Valeman, the honour of the realm would otherwise be in jeopardy. This kind of comments rose quite a few eyebrows: during centuries they had been many non-Valemen Westerosi entrusted to this task, the most recent and renowned being the defunct Ser Brynden 'Blackfish' Tully.

A bit of rationality was not sufficient to silence these voices unfortunately. The 'foreign' argument being parried, the 'knighthood' one was expressed. After all, the title was quite clearly 'Knight of the Bloody Gate' and Nymeria Sand had never been knighted nor had manifested the will to be one (never mind the traditionalists had also militated against women being granted such an honour). All the previous holders of the titles had been knighted, the list including Ser Brynden Tully and Ser Donnel Waynwood. The answer from the Eyrie was to mind their business and remark a knighthood was hardly the proof a man was a paragon of chivalry. For any who doubted this, there was the recommendation to listen a tale where Ser Gregor Clegane was mentioned. Disparaging comments came next about bastard trustworthiness and the life of debauchery Prince Oberyn Martell enjoyed in the last decade. The Queen supporters answered with whispers of tax evasions and lack of courage in front of the Great Enemy. But the climax of the affair did not come until a man claiming the sole heir of House Moore affirmed Nymeria Sand had obtained her present position by sleeping with the Queen. The royal court mocked how low the murmurs had fallen, as their sovereign was currently pregnant with her second daughter Valla in 308AC (the eldest Arya was born three years before).

This was one affirmation gone too far (although many remarked Queen Ygritte never denied formally the accusation) and the self-proclaimed 'Balon Moore' disappeared one evening and was never seen again in public.

In spite of these short-timed political quarrels, the Kingdom of the Vale was generally considered a peaceful place. There were many small groups of sub-cultures having no reason to like each other, but the policies developed by the red-haired heroine and her Consort Jon Snow made sure that prosperity and calm reigned from the high-altitude peaks to the lowest gorges retaken by the Narrow Sea. And for those who wanted to pick a fight, there always was the enrolment for the Dark Crusades...


	124. Adventure calls

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own Rickon Stark, Braavos or Lys.

 **Author's note** : Due to personal reasons (travelling), there won't be any update next week, which is why this chapter is posted on Sunday. This applies to every story I'm currently working on.

Paul: The name was chosen from the fire emitted by Lightbringer and the awful storms the new House was forced to endure before being crowned. Both metaphorically and literally...

The better question is if the clans and leaders of Crackclaw Point want to cooperate with Michel. And the answer isn't exactly encouraging...

Given that the Order of the Dawn takes their vows for a limited amount of time, yes they are swearing to remain celibate for the length of their service. Not that it's too difficult, there aren't that many women engaged in the fighting right now...

Thanks for the comments.

X59: Your compliments are heart-warming! And yes the eldest Arya was over the moon when she learnt she had a new namesake.

As for the R'hllor fanatics, well sometimes facts and logic aren't useful when dealing with close-minded people...

thepkrgmc: Yes, of course even the North these days in a melting pot by pre-war considerations...

yesboss21: I'm afraid I don't remember your review...no offense but I receive quite a lot each week. But yes, this story is nearing its end, though we have a few more chapters to go...

Claudia.m: Robb was Theon's King because no one would have tolerated an independent kingdom of the Iron Islands when its inhabitants have proven they can't be trusted. The ransoms were quite an obligation after the stab in the back Balon tried (and Asha participated in it so she hardly could claim innocence).

The Greyjoy name was tainted forever by Balon's idiocy, Euron massacres and many horrifying things the Ironborn did. Only the Mountain really fell lower and the Lannisters hardly survived this conflict. For the rest, every story is a question of choices. The Starks are one of the two Great Houses emerging as winners. With a different point of divergence, it could have been the Tyrells, the Arryns or the Lannisters. I can't satisfy everyone.

Sage of Wind Dragons: Power couple...yes I suppose so. Dragonslayer, warg and veterans of countless battles in the Second Long Night...

Matt Quinn: Hey, at least she never lied...

Pretty much. Lord Tollett is the supreme authority in these lands and everyone else is equal (in theory).

maartenvervloet: Interesting idea, though Asha would have to undertake major changes to consider this strategy. While there is a fan-base wishing to see an Ironborn-Northern alliance, her acts in canon are rather opposing it. Thanks for the compliments though.

 **Adventure calls**

 **The Travels of Rickon Stark Part I**

" _King Robb Stark the First of the name. Princess Sansa the Diplomat of Shadows. Princess Arya the Dark. Prince Brandon the Missing. Prince Rickon the Wild Wandering Direwolf. Each in their own manner, the children of Lord Eddard have marked this world of their imprint_." Maester Gowler, 400AC.

" _This boy will go far, my friend_." Rumoured conversation between Admiral Salladhor Saan and Admiral Davos Seaworth, 311AC.

" _You fear being wet, don't you?_ " Attributed to Prince Rickon Stark, 314AC.

" _Why don't you join my crew and raise a bit of hell on the known seas?_ " Attributed to Prince Rickon Stark, 312AC.

" _Must I do everything myself_?" Prince Rickon Stark, after killing two sharks with a dagger.

" _There are times when the reality is more beautiful than the legend_." Historian Arkar, 360AC

" _My master has battled armies, assassins, demons and gods. He has danced in the palaces of Yi-Ti, Volantis and Lys. He has sung hundreds of ballads from the Narrow Sea to Asshai. Countless women have loved him. He has discovered sunken cities, changed kingdoms and toppled empires. His name is the Wild Wandering Direwolf. You might have heard of him_." Mor the Scribe, 370AC.

Of the five children born from the marriage of Lord Eddard Stark and Lady Catelyn Tully, Prince Rickon Stark was certainly the one being the least renowned in the Kingdom of the North and the Trident by the end of the Second Long Night. King Robb had fought and won the independence of the Northern realm. His youngest sister had begun her legend as a warrior no one in his or her right mind crossed. Princess Sansa impressed by her diplomatic skills and her fearsome shadowcat. Prince Brandon went missing and was never found by the multitude of patrols organised for his retrieval.

The boy however had an excellent excuse: born in 295AC, Rickon had been four years old or so when the War of the Eight Kings started. No matter the shortages in warriors faced by the Starks and their bannersmen, the situation never was so dire to muster children having not the strength to wield anything heavier than a dagger. Thus while his brother fought in the South, on the Wall, and generally all over the burning Seven Kingdoms, the youngest sibling of King Robb Stark stayed at Winterfell under heavy guard.

His mother and his sisters would try to shield him as much as possible from the horrors of the war when the Siege of Winterfell raged, a difficult feat given the existence of the bond between human and direwolf in each Stark boy and girl (except Princess Sansa where it had been replaced by a shadowcat after the vile execution of Lady by the Lannisters). Ultimately, the Great Council of Duskendale formally ended the cataclysmic era in 304AC with Rickon Stark still at Winterfell and having celebrated his ninth name day.

Prince Rickon had briefly kept the title of Heir to the North from 300AC to 302AC, but it had only been a stop-gap measure brought up by the disappearance of his elder brother Brandon, and the birth of Prince Edwyle in 302AC placed him back at the second place in the order of succession. As Queen Val continued giving children to her royal husband (Prince Eddard in 305AC and Prince Torrhen in 308AC) it was evident Prince Rickon Stark would never mount on the Winter Throne short of a series of disasters.

There are few detailed reports on the life of Prince Rickon between 305AC and 309AC; the Dark Crusades and the rebuilding of the North were rightfully judged as more important, and it was only later his admirers would try to trace back how the Wild Wandering Wolf came into existence. What is known from the records, was that Rickon Stark accompanied twice his mother Lady Catelyn to Barrowton and once to Direwolf's Rest. Historians and maesters still dispute to this day how much this influenced the young Northerner. Certainly, the love of the sea and the adventure feeling had to come from somewhere; but every credible witness confirmed the bonded of Shaggydog did not put a foot aboard a ship before his fourteenth name day. But it was not going to stay that way for long. Adventure was calling.

As of the onset of the second Dark Crusade in 309AC, Prince Rickon escaped the attention of his personal guards and went on with his direwolf seeking the sensations he had been unable to fulfil until then. Like his older sister Arya, nobles and smallfolk alike remarked the young Prince had been blessed (or cursed depending on the perspective) with the Wolf's blood. The hopes of Lady Catelyn that her son would govern a small holdfast on the western coast were put on hold for the moment, as Rickon rushed to White Harbor and tried to embark on any warship going northwards. The problem was that if few had heard of Prince Rickon Stark by that point, a gigantic black direwolf was not passing unnoticed, and Lord Wyman Manderly gave quiet orders that his captains should politely try to convince the hot-blooded Stark to come home.

It was a massive understatement to say it didn't work.

Instead of sulking and going back home in a hurry, the young Stark disguised himself and got himself hired as a simple sailor on a Braavosi merchant. The ship was not bound for the Wall, Skagos or anyplace near it, but Shaggydog's master was convinced it would be a small detour. Soon, direwolf and Northerner would fight the Others' hordes, gain glory and explore the snowy immensities of Beyond-the-Wall. After all what could go wrong between White Harbor and Braavos?

Apparently the answer was 'a lot of things'. The Braavosi ship, a hulk named the _Southern Wind_ having somehow survived the blizzards of the Second Long Night was nearing the end of its service. The purple sails were tattered. The lower parts of the ships were dangerously wet. The sailors had not been paid in the last fortnight. The captain had big familial problems. The weather was miserable, as a cold rain had poured over their heads for the last five days and the crew had been forced to charge their wood cargo under it. A captain in service of Ser Wylis Manderly had nicknamed it the 'Boiling Sieve' and the spectators watching the ship get away granted it was a fitting name.

Needless to say, the captain who was in command when the _Southern Wind_ departed White Harbor never arrived at Braavos. The cause of death was attributed to a particularly devastating storm having raged over the Shivering Sea...but notorious gossipers whispered the grieving widow and daughter were not that grieving. Another event worth mentioning was that the acting captain was very young and was followed by a super-sized wolf. The merchant ship being one step away from sinking and the Braavosi expeditionary force having already departed for the Second Dark Crusade, Prince Rickon Stark was forced to plan for an eventual return, though his nights with several women captains were the subject of many conversations in the brand-new shipyards of Braavos.

Once again however, the Wild Wandering Direwolf defied the circumstances and managed to convince the captain of a warship to let him aboard. The _Ice Survivor_ was not going northwards; it was escorting one of the new convoys across the Narrow Sea. Pentos, Myr, Tyrosh and Lys were the destinations the Braavosi were going to visit. This didn't faze the youngest brother of the King in the North in the slightest. Here was an opportunity to travel overseas, something that few Starks had ever done (and none had in the last generations).

Hundreds of Braavosi, the _Ice Survivor_ 's commanding officer first of all, joked afterwards that they should have thrown Prince Rickon Stark in the Bay of Braavos with anvils attached to his ankles. It would have avoided them a lot of headaches.

It commenced at Pentos. The delivery of a letter for the captain's twice-removed cousin degenerated into the discovery of a forbidden cult venerating the Others. Five shops were destroyed, the temple of a minor deity (the Lords of the Hills, religion non-existent after 340AC) was wrecked and unrest grew so rampant the Targaryen patrols in the frontier nearby believed Pentos had entered a state of civil war. The clash ended with a pursuit involving Prince Rickon Stark (riding Shaggydog, a sight half of Pentos would take years to recover) and the cultist leader, the latter being pursued by the former (as if there was any doubt). The lawless pursuit ended when the city guard managed to catch the perpetrators of the ruckus and arrest them. The self-proclaimed 'Master of Death' was executed, his list of crimes (some of them the civil authorities had direct proof of) including human sacrifice, attempts to re-establish slavery, corruption, tax evading and crimes against humanity. But when the guards came to drag Rickon Stark in front of the tribunal, the cell was empty. At the same moment, the Ice Survivor was sailing away, their reckless Northerner back aboard. Murmurs spread a noble lady impressed by the exploits of the young Stark had used her influence to order his evasion. The whispers continued for a long time at Pentos, the lady in question giving birth to a girl nine months later. The time passed by the Northern Prince in the Essossi city was not a moon-long, but forced the Braavosi and the Pentoshi to vote more reforms than they had done in the last couple of years. A Pentoshi councillor was heard to say "Rickon Stark has posed his paw upon our fair city." Optimistic merchants in the street remarked the Northerner could hardly be as devastating as the Second Long Night era. No?

Myr in the next fortnights would beg to disagree. By a series of coincidences as unlikely as the sun rising in the west, the crew of the _Ice Survivor_ was caught in the middle of a spy operation masterminded by Tyrosh targeting several famous glassmakers. It was the start of the celebrated 'rise of the Apprentices', scores of Tyroshi emissaries and agents were hunted by diverse guilds and a few important magisters lost their positions. All told, between sixty and seventy people lost their heads in the affair.

Made quite prudent by the events of Pentos and Myr, the Braavosi didn't authorise their illustrious passenger to debark at Tyrosh. The sea dancers had been highly amused by the chaos the Prince was unleashing in his wake, but it was out of the question to begin a new war. To everyone's relief, it worked. There was no incident of note, save the recruitment of a new Westerosi exile named Mor. Prince Rickon Star of course regaled the newcomer of his adventures, and the new member of his audience decided on the spot to write a book of his hero's adventures. The first pages of _The Adventures of the Wild Wandering Wolf_ had just been written. It would eventually encompass eleven books.

The travel could have stopped there for the intrepid duo. In the Stepstones, the convoy was assaulted by a trio of pirates sponsored by Tyrosh (rumours this was pay-back for the Myrish affair were never fully confirmed). The battle was noted to be particularly merciless, with over a third of the _Ice Survivor_ 's men being cut down. Rickon Stark himself at one moment fell in the bloody waters, which was more or less a death sentence at that moment given the presence of large sea predators gathering for the free lunch. The Wild Wandering Direwolf was no common victim though; with a dagger in hand he not only killed two sharks but managed to save one of the Braavosi and repulse the rest of the sea threats until a rope was launched.

After this heroic deed, half of the Essossi in a range of a hundred leagues were asking themselves if a god had not taken mortal form. The civilian shipmasters gifted several clothes and weapons to the Northern Prince for his fearless actions. But the travel time was nearing its end. The convoy had arrived at Lys, and now a long return to Braavos was about to begin. Mor the Scribe wrote that neither Rickon Stark nor Shaggydog were particularly enthusiastic at the idea of coming back.

Once again though, the tides of fortune turned. Using his name and the renown won in mere moons, the Direwolf and the Prince-Adventurer managed to get invited to one of the select nights of games organised by the high authorities of Lys. And in a game of cards shining by its absence of decency, Rickon Stark won a ship from Salladhor Saan amongst other things (which included several rubies, two courtesans, a horse, six tapestries and a parrot).

It was not difficult after that to recruit a crew. A genuine enthusiasm spread through the harbour, promising adventure and liberty. When the _Lightning's Falcon_ sailed eastwards, half of the Lysene population cheered and the other cried. It is left to the imagination of the reader who did what.

Now sole and only master aboard below the Old Gods, Captain Rickon Stark did not wait for long before meeting trouble. A stop at a port of call on the Orange Shore found the Lysene-Braavosi-Pentoshi crew involuntary involved in a Qarthene conspiracy. Sorrowful Men, two scores of men representing the Thirteen, a rogue Targaryen general, remnants of the Harpy Cult and a demoted Dothraki khal had planned a coup to topple the Empire, the assassination of Regent Missandei being the first step on their power-grab. The plan didn't survive a meeting with Rickon Stark. The mustering traitors were cut down and the conspiracy was revealed in the streets of Volantis with Rickon Stark duelling one of the Sorrowful Men on top of the Black Walls (it was only when the corpse of the assassin fell on a rooftop below the spectators figured the spectacle was a bit too realistic).

The Wild Wandering Direwolf became the new discussion of the Volantene population for the next moon...before being forced to escape faster than a horse at full gallop. The Valyrian gossipers speculated endlessly on these reasons; the main scenario explained by the historians to the present day was the Northern Prince being caught in a love affair with the Regent by another of his (numerous) lovers (who may or may not have been a daughter of the Laenyr oldest branch). Mor the Scribe stayed very ambiguous on this whole affair, affirming his life would be forfeit should he reveal the entire truth.

Half of the crew expected their captain to direct them westwards for a detour to Westeros. Rickon Stark had not visited Dorne or Oldtown, regions which would surely appeal to his intrigue senses. For the six or seventh time, they were to be disappointed. The Wild Wandering Direwolf allied with two other captains as audacious as him (although maesters used a few stronger words to describe this band of miscreants) and continued southwards. The Basilisk Islands waited, with Sothoryos and its temples of doom right behind...


	125. At World's End

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own Rickon Stark, Sothoryos or Asshai.

Paul: Rickon stumbled upon the spies because one was a very busty woman, and he figured that he if he tried the 'puppy look' for some days she would cede to his advances. Of course nothing went according to the plan on both sides...

Yes, 11 books. Mors was planning originally one, then it became two, three...like this story I'm writing, it grew out of control.

I will not comment on the Volantis love triangle(grin).

X59: Oh, these dissidents weren't a 'working' group as we understand the term. They were more fighting and betraying themselves than opposing the Targaryen. Only the arrival of a common enemy gave them enough inciting to unite...and after his departure, the survivors who were not imprisoned fought against each other and utterly destroyed themselves.

ThemyThink: Thanks a lot!

thepkrgmc: That's the spirit! And yes, it is somewhat voluntary Rickon's adventures are more the things of ballads in historical tone than the gruesome setting of eternal war. Not that there isn't conflict, of course...

Bon: Greeting from Denmark too! There were many references in this chapter, and yes, there was one from HP...as well as Pirates of the Caribbean and other universes.

yesboss21: You can add a bit of Indiana Jones, Han Solo and a few other adventurers/rogues...Rickon is a legend and the traits are retaken in a lot of films and stories.

Ryu: Let's rather say her number of grey hairs was multiplied ten times since Rickon departed. As for Gendry, he's Lord of Tarbeck Hall.

raw666: This would a fun bonfire scene...Rickon would have the greatest number of countries visited to be sure, among a few other things.

Aki no hikari: Oh yes, Rickon has undoubtedly something of Jack Sparrow...the luck.

 **At World's End**

 **The Travels of Rickon Stark Part II**

" _Don't be ridiculous, it's a known fact this world is round! There is no 'edge' of the world! You can't go 'at world's end'_!" Desperate Lenghi erudite trying to teach Prince Rickon Stark and his crew some geographic fundamentals, 314AC.

" _First doom temples with lethal traps and murderous cannibal monkeys. Then this gigantic naval battle. I love Sothoryos! Except the snakes. Yes, if the snakes weren't present this place would be a paradise..._ " Prince Rickon 'the Wild Wandering Direwolf' Stark, 313AC.

" _What has my brother done this time_?" King Robb Stark, 320AC.

" _We're so close to Asshai..._ " Mors the Scribe, 316AC.

When Prince Rickon Stark landed on the Isle of Tears in the Basilisk archipelago in 312AC, about three years had passed since the Wild Wandering Direwolf and his companion Shaggydog had left White Harbor.

The minimum one could say about his adventures by that point was that the young Stark seemed to have a talent for unleashing chaos in the minimum amount of time possible. Pentos was reformed. The Stepstones saw their biggest naval battle since the end of the hostilities between the Three Daughters. Volantis saw a large betrayal countered before it had a true chance to achieve its goals. And this was just on the global stage. On the personal rapports, Prince Rickon swooned scores of married and unmarried women, became a rallying point for adventurers and bored sellswords...and in the process started the first steps of a legend.

Yet many Volantenes and Essossi betted against his safe return when they learnt the _Lightning's Falcon_ was sailing towards the Basilisk Islands. It was an understatement to say awful rumours circulated about Sothoryos and the nearby islands. The most pleasant pretended there was a massive pirate fleet waiting only a fresh south wind to attack the Summer Islands or Volantis. The most sinister told of blood sacrifice, half-men half-beast cultists, demons, monsters and beings which had no place in any civilised culture. In a few words, a place it was best to stay thousands of leagues away from.

While this reputation might have been deserved between 300 and 305AC, Prince Rickon Stark and the men who had rallied to his cause (liberty, adventure, sea, sex and sun for those who had not followed) faced none of that in 312AC. The curses, the demons, the pirates and all the afflictions were long gone, leaving the miserable population try to survive one more day. The inhabitants of the Basilisk Islands had lost pretty much everything; the knowledge to build homes able to resist storms, the construction sites for their fishermen or pirate hulls...and one could add the experience of the previous generations, killed before they had thought to pass their life skills orally or on parchment. Disease-plagued, the lands near Gogossos were in a state of abandon and the Northern Prince saw no reason to wait the final collapse of the archipelago. The water and food reserves were replenished and the Lightning's Falcon went eastwards, for Sothoryos and the lost expedition of the Pyromaniac.

What the Wild Wandering Direwolf and his crew ignored, was that they were far from the only ones searching for lost treasures and answers in the uncharted continent. Following a miscommunication of their spies in Volantis, the Ghiscari had become convinced the adventurers' ships sailing eastwards were an attempt of the First Daughter to re-establish their domination on the southern shores, only this time under the banner of the Targaryen Empire. The masters of New Ghis weren't ready to tolerate a Targaryen outpost so close to their main shipping lanes, and sent a fleet of no less than fifty warships to Zamettar.

Order was given to annihilate all enemy presence, and as a significant minority of the sailors were exiles from Slaver's Bay, the Ghiscari knew this order would be accomplished with eagerness and jubilation. The Mother of Dragons was gone, but the descendants of those having governed Yunkai, Meereen or Astapor wanted their revenge. The Ghiscari prepared to sail for Zamettar, their sails painted in red to support their intention.

Alas for them, the denizens of New Ghis had been extremely optimistic in assuming the lone ships of Volantis would be the entirety of the threat they would have to fight at Zamettar. In the Summer Islands, the Prince of the Flowers Ji'xo assembled a powerful fleet too. Too many times the men, women and children of the Summer Islands had been forced to endure the slave raids of the Basilisk Islands pirates. Now that they were gone, the great archers of the swan ships firmly intended to keep this peaceful status quo.

At Qarth, the Ancient Guild of Spicers had long realised the potential of great profit an archipelago near Sothoryos could bring. True, they were a bit short on regular forces, but this drawback was erased by hiring thousands of sellswords, defeated Yi-Tish officers and Moraqi bowmen. To sweeten the deal a vast fleet of warships assembled in Qarth harbours, although the hulls were in their overwhelming majority converted merchant carracks rather than true men-of-war. Their destination? Gogossos via Zamettar.

Alerted of these unfriendly gestures, a squadron from Meereen was sent south while at the same moment Volantis was flexing its muscles and launching their first expeditionary force to the Isle of Tears.

These were not the powerful armadas having fought and sunk during the Essossi Apocalypse, but this was nonetheless a wake-up to war. The Targaryen Empire, the Summer Isles, the New Ghis Empire and the Sublime City of Qarth were advancing their pawns for the next move, and these intentions were very straightforward.

In the eye of the storm, Prince Rickon Stark and his merry crew of scoundrels had of course no idea of the extent of the forces which were soon going to converge on them. Landing at Zamettar, two hundred men and a direwolf disappeared in the jungles, searching the lost expedition of the Pyromaniac, Yeen and untold riches (though perhaps maybe not in that order). Not every man would survive the journey. Between the carnivorous fishes, the ferocious animals, the poisonous plants and the traps left by every human and non-human civilisations having reigned over this green hell, a quarter of the effectives succumbed. Phobias old like the world were rediscovered by the unprepared adventurers. For Mors the Scribe as he reported in his memoirs, spiders became his personal's bane. For Prince Rickon, this place would be held by the snakes (the reasons of this enmity could be traced to a hand-to-hand struggle fought in a swamp with a score of boa constrictors).

The ruins of Yeen were far more dangerous than the fauna and flora of Sothoryos however. Suffering from paranoia before their destruction, the long-dead architects had transformed the system of pyramids, houses and streets into a labyrinth of madness, traps and atrocious games. It would have already been bad if Yeen had been deserted.

The Essossi following Prince Rickon realised quickly they were not alone. They had not quite passed the Great Gates that a first arrow volley was in the air to decimate them. The Battle of Yeen had begun, but the soldiers participating in it would soon give it another name: the Battle of the Doom's Temple. Despite the inestimable contribution of Mors the Scribe who collected the memories of the Falcon's crew, the whole affair was chaotic and the goals of every side unclear. Monkey warriors were in the ruins, this was proven beyond doubt. The presence of demented R'hllorites having somehow survived a decade in the jungle was confirmed but not explained. Magic was capable of a lot of things, but it looked like in this case the men and women following their general had been unable to die until their quest was completed. And then there were hooded lizard-like creatures, with weird objectives, fighting both the humans and their man-eater enemies.

In spite of the terrain advantage, the men of the Lightning's Falcon led the charge, devastating what was left of Yeen in the process. At the top of the pyramid, Prince Rickon stopped what looked like a proscribed ritual of the primates (and it was certainly one, the pile of bones later expeditions would recover were analysed and declared authentic), smashed an oily black stone and killed their leader. The presence of a demonic-possessed wyvern in this last duel was strongly debated, but Mors was unable to confirm it, as neither his master nor the other warriors present on site confirmed this version.

In the end, Prince Rickon and his crew emerged victorious, the other forces having fought disappeared when the cursed stone was broken. A 'regular' pillage of Yeen followed, but relatively little gold was found. The biggest prize was the eyes of a demonic statue, which were in reality rubies bigger than the average human's fist. One would find its way back to Winterfell and is deposed today in a silver coffer of the royal weirwood. The other was crimped in the crown of Empress Vhaela Targaryen. But this is a story for another day.

The group of the Wild Wandering Direwolf fought its way against the aggressive local species back to their ship, only to realise Zamettar had been the scene of a merciless naval battle while they were absent. How fortunate the _Lightning's Falcon_ had been hidden in a small cove, else they would have been deprived of a return ticket for more clement lands.

The Ghiscari fleet had arrived first at Zamettar, but its anchoring had been short and quite agitated. First, the Meereen squadron had attacked at first light in a foggy morning. The Ghiscari had managed to repulse the enemy fleet and inflict severe losses, but the solidity of their ships had been too tested. Fortnights of reparation were needed before the New Ghis captains would risk their fleet in blue sea-conditions.

It was time they didn't have. The Volantene squadron made an alliance of circumstance with the Summer Islanders, and tried to engage a conventional battle with the trapped Ghiscari. The outcome would certainly have been a devastating defeat for New Ghis if the rapport of force had stayed there, but the Qarthene fleet arrived several turns of hourglasses later. Too late to save the Ghiscari (assuming Qarth was concerned with them) but early enough to trap all the belligerents in the Bay of Zamettar. Under a heavy barrage of ballista and scorpions, the Summer Islanders and the Targaryens felt the noose tightening around their necks (the Ghiscari sailors were learning to swim in shark-infested waters). The defenders' ships were far more mobile, they had better crews (Qarth had not been shy in using slaves for the most exhausting tasks aboard their ships) but inside a bay, a lot of these advantages were nullified. And to worsen their misfortune, the wind fell, becalming all the fleets.

The battle appeared lost, until Prince Rickon Stark and a small group of his most intrepid followers (words like suicidal, reckless and over-idiotic were pronounced a lot in the aftermath) boarded a crippled Ghiscari carrack, tinkered a lot to transform it into a fireship and threw it directly on a collision's trajectory with the Qarthene flagship. The explosion, according to thousands of sailors, was like the ancient Valyrian God Balerion had decided to roar his defiance over Zamettar.

Three warships of the main Qarthene battle-line capsized due to the shockwave and the storm of debris which followed. The confusion coming from these losses forced the other officers of the Sublime City to strike their banners or search their salute in a quick and humiliating escape.

After this the youngest son of Eddard Stark and his men were treated like heroes by the Summer Islanders and the Targaryens, and the admirals in charge released three of the Qarthene prizes for their valiant (and utterly mad) idea. Rickon Stark was now the commander of a small flotilla...and a hero of Sothoryos (a massive statue would be built forty years later when an effort was made to resettle Zamettar, but the sculptor has a bit versed into the sensational).

A hero which had no intention to go back to Volantis in the next moon. The Northern Prince had managed to gain enough ships to form a small merchant company, and he firmly intended to gain some profit of his adventures. The next destination would not be in the vicinity of the Targaryen Empire, but Yi-Ti.

Due to the small disagreement currently existing between the _Lightning's Falcon_ and the city of Qarth, Prince Rickon Stark avoided the heavily frequented Jade Gates passage. The Cinnamon Straits were a less secure undertaking, but intercepting one ship in these waters was the next best thing to impossible. The Falcon used the Wyvern Straits west of Lesser Morag, before racing to Zabhad, bypassing Marahai by the south and finally taking refuge in the harbour of Leng Ma.

By a strange turn of events, the travellers arrived at a particular auspicious time. The God-Empress of Leng had just returned to the divine realm, and the succession was disputed in words and deeds. So close to a civil war, selling Sothoryos wood and animals in the great market of Leng Ma was sufficient to unleash the fires of war. The _Lightning's Falcon_ , the _Eddard Stark_ , the _Northern Adventurer_ and the _Lady Adventure_ found themselves at the heart of the hostilities, decisively battling at sea Leng warships in the name of God-Empress Lhiara. This military service (and others it was rumoured of a more private nature) and the sale of Sothoryan goods allowed the multicultural crew of the Prince to purchase Leng jade and rare items.

The next harbour to be visited was Jinqi, but there the visit was short-lived. Following the death of Sun San the Bloody Flower, the Eastern Empire created by the heroine was tearing itself apart, and the hinterlands were so chaotic the Wild Wandering Direwolf put aside his plans to visit the Five Forts. Yin was visited, but it was a city so full of intrigues and machinations the Northern adventurer remarked he preferred the Sothoryan snakes. It didn't stop him from gathering an extraordinary collection of Yi-Tish sets of cyvasse, exotic weapons like katanas and naginatas, porcelain, spices and wine though.

The Wild Wandering Direwolf mused about doing what no one has ever done before and trying to travel back to Westeros by sailing endlessly eastwards, but the officers of the numerous ships under his command (which had by that time risen to the number of eight) for once managed to block the insane idea. Asshai remained thus the last destination of the Far East visited by Prince Rickon before his long return to Westeros (where he would not return until 324AC). Apart from a conspiracy of necromancers in play, the days (or nights since the sun wasn't seen) were relatively calm. Pounds of amber, gems, gold and a few magical artefacts were traded (the dragonglass was of little interest due to the presence of Dragonstone in the Narrow Sea) and the Pentoshi, Braavosi, Lysene, Ghiscari, Yi-Tish and Lenghi crewmen (and crewwomen) finished their preparation for the great journey to White Harbor, a place that was for many as legendary as Asshai-by-the-Shadow. Of course on the last day, Prince Rickon had to provoke a riot by presenting himself on the Lightning's Falcon with his newly-wed wife. Needless to say, the cult of Ourana (goddess of the hurricanes for those unaware of the Ulthos deities) was not at all pleased the Wild Wandering Direwolf had seduced their most powerful war-spellsinger...


	126. Forgetting War and Strife

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own Westeros, the Baratheon family or the Arbor gold.

Paul: Well, Rickon has not the means to take care of them...he had only his ship and no supplies beyond what he brought with him. But no he didn't leave them to die. It's the Summer Islanders and the Targaryen sailors who are going to handle them.

Yes, there was a demon wyvern. But every participant in this scary affair agreed it was best the truth was buried and forgotten. There are things the world still wasn't ready after the Long Night...

Not many Ghiscari made it. To begin with, a lot of them didn't know how to swim, and this alone probably killed more than the sharks.

From White Harbor? None. This is not because they all died, it's just that few sailors want another adventure once they have known what kind of chaos Rickon is unleashing. There is a high rate of turnovers in the crews...

X59: What the Starks think of Rickon's actions is best left to the readers imagination. But I can say it involves face palms, sobs, tears of joy, hysterical laughter and "RRRRIIIIICCCKKKKOOOONNN!".

Indeed, jack Sparrow would never be caught married. Laughed at the jar of dirt, I admit.

thepkrgmc: Well this Asshai sorceress had...ahem, powerful arguments...

yesboss21: Well, we go see the movie and see if the scenario is as interesting, won't we?

raw666, benashdown0: Thanks a lot!

Sage of Wind Dragons: Sometimes the Starks would indeed like to find Rickon and try to calm things a bit. The problem is that they all have responsibilities. Robb is King, Jon is Prince Consort, Sansa and Arya are ladies on their own right. Catelyn is getting quite old, she is not going to run to the Far East. Plus every time they receive news of the last shenanigan, the Wild Wandering Direwolf has already moved elsewhere...

The Pact of Ice and Fire would require a marriage...so no Rickon won't be the one to fulfil it. Yes, his wife is a bit wild...she needs this to survive his spitfire behaviour. True, Robert and Eddard are laughing quite a lot from the afterlife.

melubarv: Yes, but Robb must take great care Catelyn never find said books...

TheOneKnownAsEmerald: Yep, and just think that the news are getting more and more outlandish as time passes...

 **Forgetting War and Strife**

 **Rebuilding the Kingdoms Part II**

" _This is the time to drink_!" Anonymous cultist of the Drunken Dwarf movement, celebrating an event with one barrel of 'Cider red', 310AC.

" _The battle for Westeros domination has ended. The time for wine supremacy is beginning_." Sentence attributed to Lord Justin Massey, never confirmed.

" _Yes, Cyrenna Seaworth is my ancestor_." Maric Seaworth to his readers, 997AC.

" _I will come back in time to write my new book_!" Lord Justin Massey before leaving in his quest for 'Masseica', 314AC.

Far from all the agitation and shenanigans agitating the Targaryen Empire, the successor states of Yi-Ti and every city between them, Southern Westeros was savouring a long period of peace.

The Dark Crusades of Princess Arya Stark against the Others, originally launched to repulse an eventual resurgence of the ice abominations, were now fought far away in the frozen lands of Beyond-the-Wall. These battles, no matter if they were won or lost, would present no existential threat to the Storm Kingdom, the Western Free Republic or the Free City of King's Landing. While hundreds of hot-blooded warriors formed their war companies and went to the North for the action they craved, the lands of the Reach, Stormlands and Dorne were left to enjoy a long-awaited rest.

Certainly, the new regular cycle of seasons had been disconcerting at first, but the new generation was quick to adapt. After all, descending from the survivors of a terrible civil war and a Long Night, there was little which could surprise them. The seasons following the passing of the years were just one more curiosity to add to the list of strange events having been sighted by thousands of reliable witnesses. Moreover, having one winter lasting twelve moons every four years was not that terrible for the South and the majority of the lordships answering to Baratheon rule. In Dorne, winter was the season of rains; having more regular winters was as a consequence good for the harvests and several agriculture projects in different locations (though the main desert stayed a desert of course). In the Reach where snow was a rarity even in winter, this was not seen as a bad situation by the Noble Houses, but the smallfolk were less content. Winter coming at regular intervals meant winter clothes had to be bought and kept in storage, the crops were too often not cultivated one-fourth of the time and the 'long summer' which was promised in the prayers and their masters' speeches was not coming anymore. The Stormlanders also had to endure every two years the devastating storms their kingdom was so infamous for; the rainy autumns and the stormy winters drenched the earth and Storm's End saw many great waves breaking upon the base of the cliffs. The difference between the climates of the Seven Kingdoms in Robert I's reign had not been very noticeable; no one tried to say the same thing after the defeat of the White Walkers.

It did not stop the grand rebuilding of the different nations composing Westeros. Winter or summer, autumn or spring, the torched castles were rebuilt, the abandoned villages resettled, the forgotten fields re-harvested. At least that was the message every lord, lady, king, queen and ser wanted to convince their subjects of. In reality, it was many projects had to be put on hold or outright cancelled, because there was simply not enough manpower available. The most astute and influential highborn acknowledged from the start their limited resources had to be carefully invested. Still, Westeros was rebuilding itself at a speed which left many Free Cities worried. Entire plains which had been the theatre of bloody skirmishes were unrecognisable by 310AC or 312AC, the most religious of the observers telling it was like the Maiden was consecrating these plains again.

Sign that the long period of hardships was over, marriages started to be celebrated, sometimes a bit later than the tradition dictated as the bride was visibly pregnant or already with child. In the hills, the combs and the valleys, bell rung to announce the joyous events. Hundreds of middle and lower classes gave their oaths in front of the septs and flowers-covered altars. The Lords and Ladies after brief courtships imitated this song of love and happiness. At Highgarden and its surroundings, the most remarked marriage was undoubtedly the one between Lord Willas Tyrell and Lady Alyssa Cuy in 308AC. A far more modest match than the one a Tyrell could have hoped to achieve before the war, but the historians and maesters wrote the union was sincere and not entirely political. Four children would live to enlarge the ranks of the Tyrell family and justify their House words.

One year later however, another marriage happened, one which eclipsed the Tyrell wedding in magnificence, number of invitees and nobility standing. Blessed by the Lord of Light Priests, Queen Shireen Baratheon married Devan Seaworth in the millennia-old fortress of Storm's End. A few suitors were depressed, cried or screamed in anguish; the pox-disfigured girl had turned into a beautiful young woman and was now in the dreams of every charming hedge knight. Before their bannersmen and subjects, the daughter of King Stannis and the Lord of Longtable swore to remain true and live together until death tore them apart. A delegation of septons was present too in spite of them having lost their 'state religion' status, bringing the blessings of the Seven to their sovereign. Delegations from Winterfell, the Western Free Republic, King's Landing, Myr, Volantis and Braavos to name a few brought presents. A long feast was celebrated, where it rained food and drinks with profusion. 309AC was a year of summer and from Stonedance to Nightsong people made flower necklaces, danced in joy and drank far more ale than they used to.

The benedictions would prove ultimately fruitful for the royal couple, as three royal children would be born in the years to come. Cassana Baratheon saw the world for the first time in the eighth moon of 310AC. Her twin sisters were born three years later, they were named Cyrenna and Elda.

The Storm Crown was living happy days, and the same was true for the Houses and smallfolk under their rule. For the best part of the 310s, there was nothing more dangerous at the frontiers than lone pirates (which proved easy prey for the rebuilt Storm galleys) and drunken riders having totally forgotten the frontier (and the small money sum one had to pay to cross it).

As amusing as these anecdotes were, it was these men who alerted the great merchant companies and the lords that a new kind of conflict was brewing. One which would not be fought with swords, for religious reasons or to defend the realm against a non-human species. No, this struggle was going to be economic, and touched a sector everyone had placed on his table for lunch or dinner once in his life: wine.

The lands cultivating the nectar had not been spared by the War of the Eight Kings: Dorne, the Arbor, the Oldtown surroundings and of course Highgarden had seen many battles fought upon their soils. In many cases and especially when Ironborn were involved, the destruction had been terrible. The wine production of the Arbor was not restored to its pre-war production before 316AC, and by then it was clear the monopoly enjoyed by the famed 'Arbor gold' was over.

There were wine enthusiasts from Goldengrove to Sunflower who wanted to savour white grapes in bottle, and a large number of wine producers rose to satisfy the demand. Honeyholt and Longtable would prove to be the most successful Redwyne challengers in this category. Brightwater Keep revealed a dark-purple wine which was considered slightly inferior to the Arbor most famous stocks. Horn Hill, bereft of martial glory after the death of its last lord, started to invest in the precious red liquid. Cider Hall, Bitterbridge and Grassy Vale did not wait to expand the number of barrels sold per year. Summerhall started its apple liquor, the senior historians realising that with their number of students increasing moon after moon, they had to find a way to limit the thirst of these big thinkers. At Highgarden, the beginnings of peach alcohol and pear liquor were coming.

With the barrels of wine, various liquors and beer (the latter being a favourite of the smallfolk, which was not to be underestimated) rising, Queen Shireen and the Council of Storm's End intervened before the industry of wine ravaged the Storm Kingdom. Already, land owners were ravaging the small coves and forests of the kingdom to make new barrels. Plenty of shady distilleries and wineries were caught pouring strange substances to change the smell or the taste of their beverages, with sometimes dire consequences for the health of the drinkers. And needless to say there was the concurrence. The Tridents and the southern lordships of the Riverlands had been big producers of beer and common red wines, a tradition they were happy to perpetuate. In 311AC, Lord Wendel Manderly of Maidenpool bought several fields near High Heart and associated with Lady Smallwood to create the famous 'Hearts of Gold' (whose price today tend to dry the palate very quickly). Between the Red and Blue Fork, the 'blue wine' came into existence, to the pleasure of several poor Noble Houses and new Knightly Houses having participated in the project. The Free Western Republic harvested its grapes in the Silverhill fields, at the great satisfaction of their First Citizen, who was a difficult critic when it came to the nectar of the Gods. The former Westerlands sites of production were Tarbeck hall, Sarsfield and Castamere. North of the Neck, the preferences went to honey wine, beer , hot mulled wine with spicy cloves and the brandy of White Harbor (the last one being a classic to not remember your own name the next day...a fact the author can personally attest).

The Queen had to react, and several decrees were executed thorough the 310s and the 320s. The preservation of the forests (and in some cases their renewal because not much was left), and interdictions to divert the water flows of low-levels rivers were enforced. The unscrupulous wine-producers were forbidden to use more than a certain proportion of the cultivable lands for the grapes (quite a few villages had hundreds of barrels of wine to sell but had to import their own food) and the tax reforms imagined years ago by King Stannis Baratheon found their first targets. While it diminished a bit the ardour of the fanatics and the illegal breweries, new interpretations of the laws were found and there was always the option to sell the illegal wines in foreign lands (which in turn would force Volantis and Braavos to modify their laws; truly wine law was during this decade far more explicit than the punishments for thievery).

In definitive, the only area which kept its wine monopoly was the Dornish lands around the Greenblood; in spite of several extensive (and ruinous) efforts, no one managed to replicate the unmistakable tastes of the 'Dornish red' and the 'Dornish gold'. The soil, the water and the sun conditions were simply too different from the rest of Westeros. The Stormlanders would at first dub it 'the Martell Miracle' in the 410s, explaining it was the only way House Martell could weigh as much as it did while controlling less than a third of their former Princedom.

Otherwise, the period was really tranquil. Lord Justin Massey bought a ship in 314AC for a half-serious attempt to find a hypothetic western continent he called 'Masseica'. Saying goodbye to his four children and his wife, the Smiler went into the unknown. The travel did not start with auspicious omens. Four days after their departure, the _Gallant Explorer_ was struck by a formidable storm which left it in a less than pristine state. The days after were not better. The ship was nearly struck by a gigantic whale, the winds were contrary, and the sea currents were extremely capricious. A carrack of the 310s was not built to endure this forever, and Ser Justin decided to change course. The discovery of Masseica would be attempted at a later date, one preferably when he owned a more solid ship and a crew which was not five days away from mutinying. The new direction was not south-west anymore but south-east and the _Gallant Explorer_ arrived to the Summer Islands without incident.

Justin Massey would bring back as a result an important cargo of spices and palm wine which boosted significantly Westerosi knowledge of the different plants growing on the Summer Islands. A few gemstones, curious samples of woods and a talking parrot completed the deal. This first travel on the seas did not discourage the war-hero, who promised to find a new continent on his next travel. Alas for him, he never got the chance. The second attempt, planned for 330AC, had to be cancelled due to the precarious political situation reigning in the Storm Kingdom. The third one, planned for 340AC, became a second travel to the Summer Islands as the funds necessary to make the great travel were insufficient.

The 310s had been a golden dream for those living south of the Blackwater Rush. But nothing is eternal, and now it was time to confront reality once again...


	127. Walls of the Past

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own Westeros, House Stark and the Long Night.

Paul: Glad you liked Massey and his quotes.

Willas married for love...though if the reputation and influence of House Tyrell wasn't at a very low point, this likely wouldn't have happened.

Robert and Renly rolling in their graves, yes they must be close to it. They have not been good brothers to Stannis, and their implication in the Storm Kingdom is close to zero.

X59: Thanks and yes there are many traumatised people seeking solace in the bottle after all the things they have endured and seen. For the Storm Kingdom, it will be next week I think.

thepkrgmc: Not only the veterans, the young generation emerging is quite eager to participate in Tyrionism activities...

Gremlin Jack: Yes, I have. I think we have definitely less than ten chapters before this story comes to an end.

Kinestic: Vodka is going to be invented...just not in this decade. The North is one of the kingdoms which has the most suffered, thus their alcoholic beverages are for the moment the most 'traditional of Westeros. But in time, there will men to push for something keeping the spirits and the body warm in these cold nights...

JediMasterDraco: As long as there are humans, there will be war in Westeros. And yes, this long period of peace and recovery are coming to an end. The Starks and the Targaryens are not exactly happy with each other about Dark Sister, the legacy of the Mad King and plenty of other things. The two Houses are from two very different cultures, with different values and the issues going with them.

 **Walls of the Past**

 **The North and the Long War Part II**

" _I was here when Skagos was freed from the Others' wights. I was here when the Darkstark cut the head of an Other and retook Hardhome. I was here when we fought the White Walkers from the Walls to the Frostfangs. I saw the heroes of the legend...and now my Watch ends_." Old Northerner veteran belonging to the Dawn Order, 350AC.

" _We came back_." Lord Commander Eddison 'Dolorous Edd' Tollett on the Fist of the First Men, 315AC.

" _Victory, yes. But remember our words. Winter will come again..._ " Princess Arya Stark, 348AC.

The First Dark Crusade to reconquer Skagos had been only the beginning of the hostilities fought in the inhospitable lands of the upper North. While it was true humanity could have stopped the offensives at that point, nobody suggested a strict defensive posture. The Others were not content to stay Beyond-the-Breached-Wall forever, if the events of Skagos were any indication. Worse, humanity had absolutely no idea how many monsters were rallying in the Haunted Forest and the dead tundra formerly occupied by the Free Folk. That the abomination's losses during the Second Long Night had been heavy, no one doubted it; but the estimations of how much time they would need to come back with new armies of wights and ice dragons were very blurry.

The return of magic had provided plenty of wargs, seers, wood priests, Red Priests and other specialists of nebulous disciplines. The less powerful were quite difficult to distinguish from the habitual charlatans by the way. But no matter the source of their powers, R'hllor, the Old Gods, the storms or the oceans, none were able to pierce the mystical protections which had certainly been put in place by the Night's Queen before her great assault against the Wall. If the men and women wanted to know what their Great Enemy prepared, they had to cross the Breach and enter the Haunted Forest. Given that the passages under the Wall had long been sealed and the devastation where once had stood the Nightfort was impossible to miss, the casualties promised to be high.

At least until Princess Arya Stark proposed an alternative. Having seen her reputation rise in the Battle of Skagos, the youngest sister of the King in the North had remarked how the White Walker formations had been overextended by what had been a very limited attack on a big island. Yes, no one could know how much time the ice warriors needed to recover, but if the human alliance pressed them on, this recovery was going to last years if not decades. And to achieve this, Nymeria's mistress announced she was going to attack Hardhome.

To say this declaration created a hurricane of debates and protestations was like saying the Shivering Sea is wet and stormy: a gross understatement. Many Free Folk warriors refused to go back to the place where so many of their people had been annihilated. Hardhome was cursed, they affirmed, and nothing good could come from this venture. The Stormlanders' reactions were more pragmatic: the naval contingent sent to the North being quite small, the knights speaking for their contingent preferred the option of launching the attack from the Nightfort. Fighting a proper battle in a forest they knew. Launching an amphibious assault was a painful reminder of the two battles they had fought and lost at King's Landing. Ultimately, only the Braavosi were happy with this strategy, but one had to admit it was not surprising: their sea dancers and war tactics were formed exactly for this kind of assault.

The efforts of cooperation between each kingdom, empire and republic began to show major failures. No monarch was present and at no point any of them had made clear that they were to surrender their authority to Princess Arya or anybody else. Ser Justin Massey of course proclaimed when he learnt the news that had he been present, matters would have resolved in a smooth and efficient manner...but many doubted it (and the loudest critics whispered thousands of troops would have erred for decades in the wilderness). In the mean time, the arrival of more forces did not change the political stalemate. Princess Arya, Braavosi Admiral Mocenio and Lord Benedar Belmore were in favour of the Hardhome assault. Lord Robert Rogers for the Storm Kingdom, the Targaryen General Makrio and the Westerner Republican Satret chose the headlong attack from the Breach. The Second Dark Crusade was about to begin, with many dissenters in the ranks judging it was humanity who was overextending its martial capabilities, not the Others.

As fate revealed it in a matter of days, they were right. The creatures living Beyond-the-Wall were not completely stupid, and could very well notice the preparations the Westerosi and Essossi were making (they had to use magic for the Hardhome operation, but Others had still the advantage on that front). To counter the increasing numbers arrayed against them, the Others corrupted and perverted the natural order. Transforming the entire Haunted Forest into a maze of madness and murderous frozen roots was beyond their abilities, but one or two trees in a thousand could be contaminated and become relays for their own fell powers. In the weak light of the sun, the vegetation appeared similar for Southerners not born in these hard conditions. As a result, the first time they realised it was not true was often the last time they made a mistake. Roots emerged from nowhere to grab a horse or a man and disappear with their victim in the entrails of the earth. At night, the dead were reanimated and waves of wights were launched at tired sentinels at irregular hours of the night. The soldiers feared the night once again. Trees were burnt, wights' bodies were launched on great pyres, but the coalition led by the Storm Kingdom did not make significant progress, finally stopping their offensive at the ruins of the Whitetree village to consolidate. In his messages, Lord Robert Rogers affirmed to his Queen it was only the affair of a month or two before he resumed his offensive. It would in reality take more than four years for the Stormlander to make a new move.

At Hardhome, things went better from the Northerners and Braavosi perspective. The Others had tried to sink the invasion force with magical illusions and a dense fog supposed to send the transports against the cliffs, but the captains and sailors recruited for this campaign had excellent maps and were not fooled by this sorcery. One ship was crippled and had to transfer its soldiers to the other hulls, but close to three thousand men debarked in the first wave.

They were met by a spectacle of desolation. The Others could have cleaned up the site of battle after they had annihilated the wildlings tribes, sinking the place under snow avalanches until nothing remained of this last stand. Clearly, they had chosen not to. The snowfalls and the fury of the elements had taken their toll, but Hardhome was very close to the landscape presented when the White Walkers had finished wiping out the resistance. There were two exceptions though. The first was the absence of bodies. The second was the livid blue crystal emanating raw magic at the centre of the dead village.

Looking at the blue aura of the crystalline formation, every human on the ships knew they had found a worthwhile target. Yet their eyes also fixed with attention the coast. Because if the function of this Other artefact was unknown, even the most idiotic warrior knew it was not going to be left undefended. Orders accelerated, the amphibious force had to land fast and find a way to destroy this unnatural creation.

The first score of soldiers had just set foot on land that the skeletons rose from the ground. Hundreds of dead hands lifted broken weapons and turned their skulls towards the invading force. Next to the prime target, a lone Other sorcerer started to hurl ice lances at the small embarkations. The forces of winter and death had decided to reveal their trap and massacre the maximum of soldiers before they had the chance to form a shield wall or a more powerful defence. What they hadn't taken into account was the willingness of the Northerners and the Braavosi forming the first waves. Instead of hesitating and arriving in small groups, regrouping, fortifying and protecting the other boats, the first troops slammed into the skeletons and rushed towards the crumbled wooden walls of Hardhome.

More skeletons were raised but with a direwolf and Dark Sister thinning their ranks, the dead did not look so formidable. It was a grey morning in this frozen land, but for the first time since 300AC the victory roars of the living were heard. Hundreds of men and women came ashore, pinning the wights under a rain of dragonglass arrows. The few Others in charge, less than ten in all, realised the sum of their plans was clearly not going to be enough. Leaving two of their ice brethren to act as a sacrificial rearguard, they and the lone sorcerer fled on their dead horses. Less than a turn of hourglass later, Princess Arya Stark removed the head of the last Other while Nymeria torn its companion apart. The Battle of Hardhome was over.

This was the end of the Second Dark Crusade by default. The hopes of the Northerners and their allies had been to force the Great Enemy to sally in force from the Haunted Forest and the regions they controlled, attack Hardhome and be pulverised in the process. As weeks passed however, it was clear this wasn't going to happen. Their ice crystal destroyed, the White Walkers showed no sign they were bothered by the presence of a human army on their flank. The occasional wight was sent back to the afterlife, but none of the White Walkers deigned returning to the location of one of their most decisive victories. Hardhome was fortified in case this was an elaborate ruse, but the isolation of the ancient wildling settlement now worked against the living. The passes and the other valleys to continue westwards had been buried under magical-detonated avalanches. There would be no junction with the other prong of the Crusade.

Hardhome was ceded to the Order of the Dawn and the cycle of seasons continued. Numerous leaders who hadn't sworn the vows of the new orders being constituted returned south. After Lord Rogers' pitiful performance, few wanted him in command anyway. Princess Arya had been invited to the marriage of her sister Sansa; the lady of Barrowton was to wed Rickard Ironsmith on the fifth moon of 310AC. There were also the births of two new princesses to celebrate: Queen Val had given birth to Princess Lyarra in 305AC and Princess Catelyn in 309AC.

In this atmosphere of celebration and marriages, the war Beyond-the-Wall wasn't a priority anymore. Fields had to be re-harvested, forts and castles were built and irrigation processes had to be developed. King Robb Stark made two travels to the Riverlands, calming the religious tensions brewing around the Stoney Sept and listening to the pleas of his subjects at Ashemark, Casterly Rock, Riverrun, Darry, Maidenpool and Duskendale. Scores of villages were resettled. The formation of tax collectors, royal wood-masters, shipbuilders and patrol guards had to be regulated and aggrandised. Sections of roads were paved, although the distances involved were so great the complete infrastructure work would not be completed in this half of the century.

And yet the war continued. Learning from her mistakes, Princess Arya launched in 314AC the next Dark Crusade. Smaller in numbers and equipment, the new offensive was spear-headed by small units of the Order of the Dawn. The time of mighty armies was gone; the men led by the first Lady Darkstark were now operating in squads or platoons with at least one magical practitioner in their ranks. In time, the professionalism, the lethality and the dark armours of these soldiers would earn them the title 'Watchers of Silence'. The concept introduced the idea of Special Forces in Westeros although the time for a sovereign to use some of his troops in a similar manner would only come one hundred years later in the War of Durran's Rock.

These anecdotes aside, this time the White Walkers suffered a clear and unarguable defeat. The gorges leading to the new Shadow Tower were declared safe for the first time in unremembered history. Over seven hundred wights were burnt, the Haunted Forest was purged of the icy infection in its cradle, and the few Others remaining were repulsed further than the Fist of the First Men. At last, over sixteen years after the grave defeat of the Great Ranging Night's Watch Lord Commander Eddison Tollett was able to place a black memorial stone for the black brothers who had fought there.

Several digs revealed the presence of dragonglass caches and numerous First Men artefacts, which were preciously safeguarded. The whole place being a critical magical nexus only accelerated the building of a Dawn fortress to surround it. But the original Fist would be kept in its natural state 'until the end of times', silent witness and victim of the fate Others could do when left unchecked. Hundreds of Old Gods pilgrims begin to come each year to see the Fist with their own eyes, braving the cold and the muddy trails serving as roads. To protect the Breach and ensure the White Walkers would never be able to rush south easily, construction of a new fortress, trench and redoubt network was begun in 318AC. Protecting the ancient work of Brandon the Builder, it took the unoriginal name 'the Walls'.

The Dark Crusades did not end but this was the last triumph making the news from the Direwolf's Rest to Sunspear. The Others were now operating in single units, launching their terror attacks from the Skirling Pass and the neighbouring glaciers. North of the Antler River, even the Northerners and the few Free Folk wanting to fight were forced to attack in spring and summer. The Enemy and the snow were too aggressive to do anything else.

New events would keep the Kingdom in the North and the Trident from committing sizeable armies to the extermination of the Others. In 322AC, Princess Arya married Avaro Saan, an union which would be noted to be 'interesting' by the historians (and would give two girls). In 329AC, Lady Catelyn Stark died; she was sixty-five name days old. After her demise came the troubles. Lord Stevron Frey died in 330AC, his death ushering the Frey Civil War. Around the God's Eye, smallfolk and little knights rose to demand more autonomy from their Frey masters. Near Tumbler's Falls, the fanatics of the Sacred Warrior movement entered in rebellion, beginning an uprising which would last sixteen moons.

The monsters were never completely gone. The death of the Night's Queen had not put an end to humanity internal quarrels. The seasons passed and no Long Summer blessed with eternal peace came for the world. Like the games of thrones, lordships and power, the Long War continued unabated...


	128. The End begins for the Horsemen

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own Essos, the dragons or the Dothraki.

Paul: The Long Night has created deep mental scars in certain Westerosi military arms. And a lot of them won't fade away with a click of fingers...

Wiping out the Freys? Impossible, there are so many of them. I tried in Let the Galaxy Burn with a Northern punitive expedition, and despite this they didn't manage to catch the entire House. At one point quantity is a quality of its own...and Walder Frey has sired so many sons and daughters it's really difficult to extinguish them. Killing one or two dozens, no problem. The whole family? Pray the Seven and hope for the best.

Yes, Catelyn's demise announcing the troubles is somewhat dark-humoured.

X59: Hey, this is real life...so no, the troubles never end. The aftermath of the Long War has seen a long period of peace but it has not settled everything. The Freys indeed are always sure to experience violent succession issues thanks to Walder. As long as Stevron lived, peace was more or less maintained in the Twins, but it could not last eternally.

Sansa married a scion of House Ironsmith because she really didn't like her southern adventure and the other great Noble Houses of the North were generally unsuitable for one reason or the other.

Yes, Arya married one of Salladhor Saan's (many) sons. For an agitated future...

thepkrgmc: Yes, committing a large numbers of armies beyond-the-Wall is a very difficult challenge. Still if you don't try, you're not willing to win...

Guest: No, Robb's eldest child is a boy.

Eduard Kassel: When the Others had the upper hand, it probably never came to their minds to try this ambush-tree methods...after all they were planning to take over the entire world, why go these small-scale efforts when soon the entire planet would be theirs? Now they're desperate however, and necessity is the mother of invention...

Yes, ironically Stevron is going to be known as the last respectable lord of the weasel's bridge for a while...

I will have to consult the dates, but yes I believe Rickon came back in time for the births.

 **The End begins for the Horsemen**

 **Winds of Change**

" _It's time for the Ibbenese people to come back home! It's time to take our revenge against the Dothraki! Join us! Join us to rebuild our glorious empire of the waves and the seas!_ " Ibbenese recruiter, 319AC.

" _The Kingdom of Sarnor will rise again. Kill all the screamers_." Sarnori commander, 327AC.

" _The Dothraki only respected force. Is it any wonder that when they lost it, the rest of the world hunted them down_?" Maester Tull, 345AC.

" _They say the Dothraki were destroyed when Vaes Dothrak was sacked. But in reality, the horse-mounted outriders had long disappeared into nothingness..._ " Volantene erudite, 370AC.

The Dothraki khalasars had certainly been one of the greatest benefiters of the Doom over three hundred years ago. Without the threat of the dragons to keep them in line, the horse-lovers barbarians had devastated kingdoms after kingdoms, reducing uncountable civilisations to ruin. Hundreds of thousands men, women and children were enslaved. Entire cultures were extinguished and were replaced by the brutal perspective that might made the right. For three hundred years it had worked, the khalasars continuing their growth and the Free Cities cowering in fear, paying the khals and their lieutenants to bypass their lands. The vast steppes of the east, where no fixed settlement save Vaes Dothrak could be found, had taken the name of Dothraki Sea. The khals, succeeding one another, forgot these times where they razed entire cities and used their hordes to establish the predominance of the Dothraki power.

And yet a lot of people didn't forget, not after a couple of centuries. Descendants of the vanquished and the lost waited and prayed for a chance. A chance to avenge the destruction of their ancestors, a chance to punish these murderous and illiterate degenerates and claim back the lands which were theirs by right. The Doom had created the flaws allowing the Dothraki to rise; they would wait for another to come and smite down the khalasars.

And at the start of the 300s after Aegon's Conquest, the long wait was finally over. The Second Long Night had begun, the dragons rose back in the skies and the Dothraki khalasars began to fight right and left. Arrogance, slaves, prophecies, submission to the Targaryen crown, resources dwindling were as many reasons the khals and their subordinates chose to wage war against each other.

Precise numbers were hard to estimate, due to the illiteracy and the disdain held by the Dothraki for the disciplines of the mind, but minimal guesses could affirm over seven khalasars out of ten were wiped out during this period. Diseases, fratricidal conflicts inside a khalasar and devastating losses during the wars fought by the Mother of Dragons made sure that the surviving Dothraki were pale shadows of the endless horse-mounted legions having gone to war in the past.

Reality began to sink in for the barbarians and their enemies. For a culture which had always based its pride on the horse and military force, the Dothraki were weak. They were probably weaker than they had been at any point in their history, and the Dothraki conception of diplomacy had made sure centuries ago they would find no friends anywhere in Essos. In the Targaryen Empire, the surviving hosts were assimilated, excluded or reduced to starvation by the end of the 320s.

The Ibbenese were the first to come back in force. Sailing from Ib, a reclamation fleet arrived in 218AC at the ancient ruins of Ibbish, which the Dothraki had called in their language Vaes Aresak. Two years later, it was the turn of Ib Kar (also known as Vaes Leisi) to be resettled. From the Bay of Tusks to the Krazaj Zasqa Mountains the whalers, merchants and civilians came back to the land of their origins. It went without saying that any Dothraki found in proximity of a village was immediately hunted without mercy and impaled on traditional Ibbenese harpoons. The sacks of Ibbish and the ancient realm of Ibben were finally avenged.

A decade ago, this demonstration of force and the colonisation would have received a hurricane of steel and Dothraki screamers in answer. The coast resettled by the Ibbenese was close to the 'Womb of the World' and the 'Mother of Mountains', two places that were as close to holy as it was possible for the horse-mounted pillagers. At the height of their power fifty to a hundred thousand horsemen would have been mustered in one moon and then went to explain to their enemies how bad an idea it was, reducing in slavery the children and raping half of the settlements. But this counter-attack never came. The Dothraki hordes that should have accomplished this counter-attack did not exist anymore. A few khalasars came to rest around the Womb of the World, but few of these armies went over five or six thousand valid fighters. Too often, they brought with them internal quarrels, plagues and shortages of everything. Without the Free Cities offering tribute, the Dothraki had not access to the craftsmanship for their horses and the basic needs of warfare. Usually they captured slaves but these last years it was more and more the Dothraki who lost the battles...and any nation lucky to win against the screamers murdered its Dothraki prisoners.

By 226AC, eight years had passed and the leadership of Vaes Dothrak had all but abandoned the idea of getting rid of this growing threat on their northern flank. Not only the Ibbenese were expanding, but other threats had materialised themselves on the Dothraki Sea.

First and most dangerous of all, Empress Vhaela Targaryen was mounting her dragon Syryxes. The Dothraki had been forced to admit they had no defence when it came to dragons when Daenerys Targaryen forced them to submit. It was proved again in 323AC when east of the Ainted Mountains the young woman unleashed dragonfire on an alliance of three khalasars. The Dothraki had demanded Volantis started to offer tribute once again; the answer came like a comet of the heavens. The dragon of the Empress supported by a column of two thousand heavy cavalry devastated nine thousand barbarians in less than hour. Two more defeats in 324AC convinced every Essossi able to use a bit of intelligence that the Dothraki were a paper tiger. It was time to kick the last barbarians out, a task the Qohorik and the Norvoshi did with enthusiasm all over their territories. The dozen of warbands existing were remnants of diverse khalasars, fighting between themselves more than they challenged the outsiders.

The second threat was the Sarnori resurgence. Once they had rebuilt their navy and their city, Braavos proved only too happy to subvention the efforts of the Sarnori exiles to rebuild their kingdom. This realm had perished under the Dothraki arakhs centuries ago; their descendants were eager to create the foundations of the new one with a pile of Dothraki skulls. With Ibben and Lorath also providing help, the Sarnori managed to develop their land power and their fortresses, creating a fortification network between Saath, Sarys and Morosh. On this occasion the Dothraki khals recovering in the vicinity decided to react. The land having once formed the Kingdom of Sarnor was an excellent pasture for their horses and rarely exposed to massive storms or other weather contrarieties. Unlike the territories claimed by the Ibbenese, this was prime land for the rebuilding of new khals and the terrible glory of the Stallion-mounting-the-World. Fifteen thousand outriders descended down the Sarne in 327AC, eager to restore their fortunes of war. But their enemies had no intention to fight them on an open field; no, the Sarnori were waiting in their fortresses, gates closed and siege engines manned.

At first the Dothraki laughed a lot when they realised the strategy chosen by their opponent. The ancient Kingdom of Sarnor had tried this defensive strategy once, the masters of horse warfare thought it particularly stupid they would try again when it had evidently failed the first time. In the days to come, they would burn the harvests, ravage the villages, poison the wells and generally make this land a desert. Then the Sarnori, starved and thirsty, would be forced to sally out of Sarys' walls. The resulting battle could only result in a Dothraki victory.

So sure were the barbarians of this turn of events that few sentinels were left to guard the approaches of their camp while the rest of the horde drank enough of their fetid alcohol to kill a sellsword company. It was their last mistake. A few turn of hourglasses before dawn, the Sarnori and close to four thousand heavy infantry provided by their allies launched the attack. If the Dothraki had been ready for the assault, this charge would have been a disaster. But several hundred light skirmishers with small shields and big knives had been sent ahead, tearing the throats of the camp guardians. Once this had been done, half of these warriors had rushed to the horses and began to slaughter them. The other half were putting fire to the tents, liberating the most dangerous slaves and generally causing as much chaos as possible.

There was never a battle. Mere scores of the Dothraki managed to put themselves in something looking like battle-order. By then it was already too late, the Sarnori massacring everyone inside the camp who wore a Dothraki warrior's braid. Six khals had perished. The Dothraki domination upon these plains was irredeemably broken.

This was just one of the storm's facets engulfing the nomadic horsemen. Sarnor, Ibben, Qarth, the Free Cities, Slaver's Bay, Ghis and the Lhazareen all had reasons to hate the Dothraki. While the latter's pacifism prevented them to commit vengeful acts, the rest of these population were far less restrained.

Dothraki had no sea interests to attack or raid of course. The concept of supply lines had not crossed the Narrow Sea either; the khalasar was at the same time an army, a town, a slaver company and many other things. In fact the kingdoms, republics and empires all over the world had more in common with each other than the Dothraki. But this did not mean there were not chinks in the armour of the Dothraki (in fact it was perhaps not an adequate comparison: the barbarians disdained the protection offered by steel...which tended to explain their high rate of casualties). Qarthene merchants bribed their fellows to raise the price of practically everything a horse-lord would need to survive. Wild horses were captured or killed to prevent the Dothraki from reconstituting their mount's losses. Caravans received the protection of several sellsword companies bored from the relative lack of hostilities reigning in Essos. Once upon a time, the Dothraki would have welcomed challenges like a hundred pikes or two hundred light cavalry. Not anymore. The screamers who had made the world tremble were ashes in the wind, and their replacements had not bothered modifying their tactics. Each battle resulted in hundreds or thousands more Dothraki dying, their slaves rising in revolt and acclaiming their conquerors.

It was difficult for an entire culture to die; the Westerosi knew this issue intimately since they had the problem of the Iron Islands not far in their memories. The Essossi were starting to acknowledge it with the Dothraki. No matter the number of battles, force was to admit the Dothraki Sea was huge: between Qohor and the Steel Road there was enough space to transpose the Westerosi continent with a large margin. The Sarnori, Targaryen, Braavosi, Qarthene and Ibbenese reserves of manpower were too limited for these immensities. And the threat of the Dothraki khalasars while seriously diminished was not totally over. In 328AC, the Ibbenese defenders of the fort Ib Bael were almost caught by surprise when Khal Voro assaulted their fortifications. The Dothraki had marched night and day in the forest to bypass the surveillance system of the colonists, going so far as letting their slaves, their old and their young alone at the edge of the woods to guarantee the effect of surprise.

The battle of Ib Bael was of a rare savagery, even by the standard of conflicts including Dothraki. Each of the Ibbenese had had the time to grab a harpoon or a long spear. The cavalry charge managed to climb the slopes surrounding the fort, but once at the top they faced hard wood walls and plenty of sharp objects. Horses could not jump over this obstacle. If the Ibbenese had been better equipped in bows and arrows, it would have been the end. The defenders' lack of long-range weapons amongst the defenders meant the Dothraki were free to try another charge. And then another one. By the time Khal Voro died and command passed to a less than stubborn commander, over four thousands Dothraki had left this world and hundreds more had been heavily wounded. One thousand and three hundred Ibbenese, in their great majority militiamen and civilians hastily formed to garrisoning duties, had given their lives to bleed the enemy. The khalasar retreated and never came back under the Ibbenese walls. Rumours in the moons after the incident affirmed the death of the khal had led to a massive splinter of its members.

These attacks did not happen without retaliation. For each khal trying to raid the civilised realms, the Essossi forces stationed on the frontiers of the Dothraki Sea organised counter-raids. The Targaryen doctrine officially became to answer any attack by the destruction of an entire khalasar, with the dragons delivering the sentence. Losses were heavy for the Qohorik, Targaryen, Sarnori and Qarthene who were charged of this hard task. But they were catastrophic for the Dothraki, who were receiving a second demographic purge. And they had not recovered from the first one.

With the ban of slavery in Western Essos, the Dothraki had seen a major source of income leave their purses and an entire sub-class they had relied upon was mounting uprisings against them.

As a result, while the fall of Vaes Dothrak in 380AC was the work of the Sarnori-Ibbenese alliance, in truth the might of the Dothraki khalasars had long faded into obscurity. The Dothraki culture today is largely extinct, the illiteracy and the disdain for written records having left few things to remember. Some traditions were adopted in the Targaryen Empire, but for the most part the horse-lords beliefs were dead and gone. The circle of seasons turned and soon the eastern plains forgot their very name...but not war.


	129. The Last Hero

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own Westeros, the Long Night or the characters GRRM invented.

Paul: Yeah, some Dothraki integrated quite well within the Empire, but it was more on the order of a few thousands; compared to the total of the Dothraki population it was a tiny minority.

Having a lack of canon figures...I tried to integrate some of them but there were definitely none I could use for the end to the Dothraki problem.

X59: It's the problem when you're basing your entire culture on the rule of the strongest...once you're not, the legacy you leave isn't very brilliant. That the Dothraki were illiterate didn't help, because their enemies weren't interested in keeping their memories alive.

Hanibalrider: No, it wasn't anything special. There wasn't any sizeable army anymore to defend it, it fell very easily...in fact if it had not been the Dothraki's only town it would have been nearly unremarkable.

TMI Fairy: Well the Ironborn have not been exterminated but they have come very close. Besides a lot of the refugees on the mainland are not identifying as Ironborn anymore, so killing them would not be really productive.

thepkrgmc: Yeah, better than the Dothraki does not mean their successors will be angels or anything like that. The Sarnori and the Ibbenese have their own drawbacks.

Eduard Kassel: The Dothraki as you remarked are going to fade and disappear almost completely; unlike the Ironborn they were no Rodrik Harlaw to keep a large library somewhere and promote a less militant version of their culture. Barbarian and militarist they were, barbarian and militarist they died...

Sarnor and Ibben are on the rise now, you're right. The nature has horror of the void and when an empire collapses it's often the internal problems and the enemies of old who are responsible for the fall.

The Hrkoon cities have suffered, not because they suffered due the war but they were at the epicentre of several earthquakes and other tectonic upheavals during the Second Long Night. They are rebuilding and expanding, but they will never be more than small regional powers.

 **Author's note** : So here we are. Valar Morghulis, like one character said. I never intended for this story to become so long, honestly. But with many readers, reviewers and ASOIAF enthusiasts...well, it was sometimes difficult to stop. That said I had this end in mind by the tenth chapter. How the story would arrive to this point changed several times.

There will be one last chapter after this one, which will serve as the epilogue. After this the grand timeline of _A different weasel makes a difference_ will officially end.

For those who will undoubtedly groan in agony and demand a sequel, it's possible there will one. Maybe. For the moment I have other projects and plans in the boxes, but it's likely that in one or two years I will have the inspiration to write the adventures of a new generation in a world where everything has changed.

The sad part is that the _Winds of Winter_ book has still not been published. Sigh. Oh, well. Time to go back to Westeros for a last adventure...

 **The Last Hero**

" _Two patrols have been lost in the last fortnight. Either they have all been surprised by the bad weather or we have lost the first skirmishes with the Enemy. Increase the state of readiness of every unit_." Lord Commander Theo Glover, 999AC.

" _I am the last one, you know. They're all gone...and now my watch ends_." Last words of Lord Commander Eddison 'Dolorous Edd' Tollett, 395AC.

" _I go now to attend my king beyond. Surely he has missed my counsel and company_." Last line from Lord Justin Massey's 'Farewell to the Realm' speech sometime before his death.

" _I am the prettiest Stallion in all of Masseica_!" Alleged last words of Lord Justin Massey, 350AC. At the time of his death Lord Justin was highly medicated with milk of the poppy and possibly another at the time unidentified substance provided from an alleged 'Asshai wine-bender'.

" _Govern wisely my son...Winter is always coming_." Last words of King Robb Stark, 353AC.

" _Family. Direwolves. Winter. Dawn...I am a Stark and the pack survives_." Last words of Princess Arya Stark, 394AC.

" _This lord was perhaps a floppy trout, but he was OUR trout_." Anonymous Riverlander after the death of Lord Edmure Tully, 346AC.

"Together to the end of times." Last words of Queen Ygritte, 376AC.

" _My treasure? If you want it find it! I hid it somewhere in this world_." Last speech of Prince Rickon Stark before his final travel, 394AC.

The year 330AC is remembered in Westerosi history as the moment the long period of peace following the Long Night ended. Sadly, there was little warning signs the Storm Kingdom or the Kingdom in the North would experience any trouble when the first moon of the new year commenced.

The efforts to rebuild the continent to its former glory continued and the Others' threat had long been repulsed in the most inaccessible regions of the Frostfangs. Quarrels between the Noble Houses were at an all-time low. Harvests were plentiful, and while an important number of villages and lands were still straining to recover pre-war levels of food production, starvation and famine were widely considered things of the past. The differences between religions were settled amicably.

Events proved once again everything could unravel faster than a thunderstorm.

In a little village named Baelor's Sight situated south of the Free City of King's Landing, the infamous black fever spread. Sanitary and quarantine measures had been ignored due to the corruption of the authorities by several Essossi smugglers, and the result was terrible.

In less than a fortnight, nearly all the inhabitants of said place were dead but in this interval the epidemic had spread to half of the Eastern Marches and the Stormlands. In one moon, the Reach and the Riverlands lords were seeing their own smallfolk die. Truth to tell the black fever was not killing that many people compared to previous epidemics in the past...but the initial outbreak was so quick all classes of society were devastated. At Storm's End, the fever killed Queen Shireen and her consort, elevating their young daughter Cassana to the throne in five days. Lord Horpe died at Summerhall along with a third of the historians' students. Ser Donnel Swann went to bed and never woke up, an inglorious end for such a great commander. Numerous lords and knights who had braved the cold blades of the White Walkers fell like fleas against this menace their swords were powerless to slay. So it was in the Marches and the heart of the Stormlands, and the rest of Westeros did not escape the mass burials and the sinister funeral pyres. The disciples of Tyrionism augmented their consumption of wine and ale, reasoning that if they had enough alcohol in the blood, the disease would have no hold in them (the fact a significant majority survived did a lot for the popularity of the Cult of the Dwarf Triumphant). At Oldtown, Lannisport, White Harbor and the developing Stormlands cities hundreds of deaths were reported. Lord Wyman Manderly perished and Lady Lyessa Flint did not survive. Quarantines were enforced with an iron fist...but in many ways it was too little too late. No matter the ruthless orders given, the black fever was everywhere.

And with each highborn falling, order collapsed a bit more. Visiting the Frey holdings close to the God's Eye, Lord Stevron Frey caught the fever and died, ushering the Frey Civil War. In the south-western Riverlands, succession crises led to a religious uprising. In the divided Westerlands under Northern governance, Lord Adam Marbrand, Lord Podrick Payne and his wife Asha had to break countless uprisings with many rebels carrying weapons originally forged by the Western Free Republic smiths. At Maidenpool, Ser Wendel Manderly ordered row after row of executions, ironically killing probably more men than the black fever inside his own harbour. Still, the Kingdom in the North and the Trident lost few of its great leaders in the epidemic. Like the Vale, by the end of 334AC, the situation would be somewhat back under control (the repercussions alas would be felt for decades).

The same however could not be said about the Storm Kingdom. Queen Cassana the First of Her name had not yet been crowned that hundreds of septons were screaming in public this epidemic was a judgement of the Seven. The Faithless Baratheons had abandoned the worship of the Seven-Who-are-One, and now the Heavens were punishing mankind. That the young Queen was crowned by a Red Priest (albeit one known for his tolerance of other religions) did not calm the tempers. From the shores facing the Sunset Sea to the Narrow Sea, a wave of rebellions started. With the deaths of Donnel Swann and Richard Horpe, the various sects and the partisans opposed to the idea of the Red God and the Baratheon regime believed they had a chance.

They were kind of right...but having a chance did not mean it was a very good one. Queen Cassana recalled in emergency Grand Admiral Seaworth to duty, naming him Hand of the Queen for the conflict to come. The support of the old war-hero meant that from the onset of the clashes the Royal navy and entire garrisons supported the Crown with an unwavering determination. Dorne stayed for the most part quiet and unperturbed by the disorder, a feat many credited the Sand Snakes and their descendants for.

Once the quarantines were no longer necessary, every part of the realm east of Longtable was brought back under Storm's End control. West of it, it was an entirely different story. In the isolated villages and several forts under the control of knights wanting a return to the old times, the rebellions went out of control. The ringleaders had never participated in true battles, never mind the Battle of the Last Alliance. They had little experience of war...and thus the uprisings were sharing resemblances with a horde of locusts. Rebels and those fighting them had the appearance of bandits after a few massacres and looting. After a few nights behaving like monsters, it was hard to make a difference between the 'honest' liberty-fighters, the crusaders having taken their swords to kill some heretics and the outlaws in it for the money and the blood-shedding. The hills and mountains between Uplands and Horn Hill were provinces escaping to any control. The Ocean Road was plagued by a band of bandits that were close in size to a small army.

The Royal troops which were sent along the Mander to restore order understood quickly their task was going to be neither easy nor pleasurable. The rebels had pillaged enough armouries to be a redoubtable skirmish force. Whatever Stormlands authority had once existed in these coves and hills was long gone.

Moreover the loyalty of the local lords was now openly into question. The winters and old age had finally had reason of Lord Leyton Hightower. The black fever had taken his heir Baelor, giving the control of the most populated city of the Storm Kingdom to Garth 'Greysteel' Hightower. And the new lord felt absolutely no loyalty to a young Queen thousands of leagues away. The same could be affirmed of Lord Manfred Oakheart, Lord of Old Oak. The efforts of their sovereign to impose a new law code across the realm were viewed with suspicion and paranoia, the encroachment upon their prerogatives and grand privileges being quite serious.

The seeds of the Mander Crisis were definitely rooting and prospering. A new generation of the nobility was drinking the nectar of power and these men were finding it sweet. Queen Cassana was advised by many to abandon her reforms, but with a stubbornness which reminded her grandfather, the Storm Queen did not relent. Her realm would be unified under the new code of laws and if one or two traitors had to be crushed before the work begun by King Stannis was complete, so be it.

Of course this did nothing to mend the problems between the western and the eastern parts of the Storm Kingdom. During the entirety of Queen Cassana's reign (which lasted from 330AC to 372AC), the armies of Storm's End were forced to intervene from the frontiers with the Western Free Republic to Sunflower Hall with depressing frequency. The recruitment of many Dornish auxiliaries to improve manpower problems did not contribute to calm the tempers of the would-be separatists.

The seasons passed and the heroes died. Names like 'Greatjon' Umber, Davos Seaworth and First Citizen Sandor Clegane left this world in the 340s, the long periods of conflict, the regular winters and their hard work having taken a large toll. In 346AC, Edmure Tully was badly wounded in an assassination attempt by a Faith fanatic and faded away, leaving his title and his lands to his eldest son Hoster. Four years later, it was the turn of Justin Massey to disappear in...disturbing circumstances, putting a definite end to the volumes of the _Life and Times of Justin Massey_.

In 353AC, the King in the North himself, King Robb Stark, was no more. First of the ancient Stark line to take back the Crown of Winter, the man who had led the North to its greatest expansion in history was escorted to his tomb under Winterfell by hundreds of warriors. His direwolf Grey Wind was buried with him, and his Queen would be buried in nearby tomb when she returned to the Old Gods six moons later. The Valyrian sword Ice passed to King Edwyle Stark.

The number of the kings, queens, lords and ladies having witnessed King Robert and King Stannis' lives grew slimmer every year. Regent Missandei was rendered full honours by Empress Vhaela when she passed away in 358AC. Prince Trystane Martell, exiled Dornish man, left his title to his son Oberyn in 361AC. His spouse Myrcella would live until 369AC.

Chosen of the Gods or not, no one was in the end immortal. Consort Jon Snow closed his eyes for the last time in the third of moon of 376AC. Queen Ygritte followed him two days after his demise, her great vitality finally gone. In her last orders, Azor Ahai commanded the Valemen to return Lightbringer to Dragonstone. This desire was obeyed. The most powerful magical sword remains on a great stone altar close to the volcano, waiting for a new champion to raise it in defiance of the Long Night. Uncountable historians and maesters have speculated on the fact that no matter the violence of the eruptions and the length of the lava fissures, the altar has never had a scratch in over five hundred years.

A decade passed and for many the legend grew out of control. Tyrionism became an accepted religion in the Westerlands with several majestic tavern-temples built, eventually leading to an end of the Northern overlordship in 426AC. Tensions grew between the North and Braavos as the economic practises of the latter were encroaching on the Northern markets.

In 393AC Princess Sansa Stark died of old age. Tens of thousands Northerners gathered to give her a last homage: under her wise rule, Barrowton had become a thriving city, starting the unofficial rivalry with White Harbor for the title of most prosperous and beautiful city of the North. After one hundred and seven years on this earth, she left an inheritance of shrewd diplomacy, six children (though she outlived four of them) and twenty-two grandchildren.

Princess Arya 'the Dark' Stark, who had come to her burial, did not survive her sister for long. The long travel from Barrowton to the Direwolf's Rest took the last of her forces the heroine had in her aged body. Nymeria (all the direwolves of the King and his siblings were gifted with an exceptional longevity) and her bonded returned in time to hold their last breaths in front of a massive pack of direwolves. The howling that night was never heard again by human ears, although there are legends telling that should the ancient pact be needed again, the pack will be reunited to fight against the Great Enemy. Dark Sister passed on the Darkstark line, and a thirty-meters-high statue of the Princess was raised near the Wall.

For the last child of Eddard Stark, this news broke the last link binding him to the Westerosi continent. At a shipyard on the Stony Shore, Prince Rickon Stark finished the construction of his ocean-traveller galleon the _Wild Adventurer._ Going to pay his respects to the sister he had always admired, the last son of Catelyn Stark felt his time had come. After a rousing speech, the Wild Wandering Direwolf left the Northern shores in search of the legendary western continent. He was never seen again and hundreds of thousands fortune-seekers have since gone westwards in the hope of finding his legendary treasure (which remains undiscovered to this day). Little wonder then that when forty-eight years later the _Sea Eagle_ arrived on the shores of an undiscovered great island, they would name it Prince Rickon's Land...

Seventeen days after the departure of the _Wild Adventurer_ , Lord Commander Eddison Tollett held his last breath in the great hall of the new Castle Black.

The black brother was the last hero of an age of legends. With him went away the souvenirs of unified Westeros and the Second Long Night.


	130. Epilogue: Dawn of the Legend

**Disclaimer** : I don't own ASOIAF. I don't own Westeros, the Long Night or the characters GRRM invented.

 **Author's note** : And thus the story ends. Thanks to all for your remarks, support and ideas!

Paul: I thought about writing more chapter...but frankly they would not bring much to the story and I like to surprise everybody, so...

Massey last words must indeed be considered very suspect.

Yeah, Tyrionism is a religion harbouring different doctrines than the norm for healing.

As for the next invasion, stay tuned...

Marvelmyra: I'm well aware I made some grammar mistakes in this story but there's no need to use that many reviews to recount them one by one. It's not constructive and frankly a bit exasperating.

Hanibalrider: He left a few riddles for the next people to read his adventures' books. They have been really useful to tear the hair of the readers in frustration...

Gremlin Jack: Rickon's wife died five years before Arya, and it was one of the reasons why he started the work on his last ship. Oh, yes the Wild Wandering Direwolf left behind a multitude of (adventurous) grandkids...

Sage of Wind Dragons: Some historians and maesters have their suspicions concerning those chosen by the Gods...but these are suspicions, not facts. Thanks for the support!

TheWumpus: Ha! Ha! Ha! I don't think I would do it justice...

BarrZ: Thanks for the support! Continue to read my other stories and enjoy!

Mimagova: Yes, nobody is eternal but the main characters had good and long lives. Thank you very much!

Hektols: The poor girl had at least not to endure the presence of Walder Frey for long...which is somewhat a consolation.

It's not that Stannis trusted the wrong persons, it's just that apart from Davos and a few honest soldiers, nobody was interested in following the succession laws and the customs of inheritance. Renly planted a dagger in his brother's claim from the very beginning and he has never managed to compensate this.

thepkrgmc: Thanks for the compliment! For now anyway I have other ideas to write...

Eduard Kassel: Yes, Davos had a long and plentiful life; unfortunately for him it meant he outlived most of his sons. Still, the Seaworth line endures and survives decades later.

The Age of the united Seven Kingdoms has indeed passed. The realms will change, thrive, prosper and fight with each other.

Thanks for the review. It was a pleasure.

 **Epilogue**

 **Dawn of the Legend**

The Northern wind had never seemed colder. It was persistent too. The snow was flowing right into their visages; helmet or no, it was really becoming to be unpleasant. For one, they weren't able to see half of the time further than their own hands. For two, their speed was so limited that they would need hours to go back to their camp.

"A blizzard is coming, Captain. A big one."

Jonos Kark-Umber would have surely spit to mark his point, but the freezing temperature and a new blast of wind made this impossible. The big Northerner instead closed his mouth under the grey-white winter clothes all the men of the Order of the Dawn wore. It was the best thing to do; anyway his spitting would have certain frozen before touching the ground.

"Again?"

The last ice storm had been only six days ago. To have a new one upon them so fast was not completely unusual, but it was not a good sign either. There had been autumns far more bearable than this summer's end. Scratch that, there had been winters far more bearable than this summer's end. It was like the seasons had been completely overturned.

 _And better not to think about the winter which will come after that._..

"Then we will have to go back." Sighed Maric.

Abandoning their search mere hours after the start of the day was raging, but it was not like they had a lot of choice. The weather was worsening by the minute and the chances of fulfilling their orders in that kind of weather were as low as it could possibly get.

"The Lord Commander is not going to happy we've found nothing." Remarked Ulfric Umber, making an understatement of the highest order in his sentence.

Lord Commander Theo Glover had been in a massacring humour well before two patrols disappeared in the white wilderness of the Lands of Always Winter. The resumption of hostilities between the Targaryen Empire and the Braavosi Third Republic might have something to do with it. Or was it the declaration of war between the Sarnori Union and the Sarnori Confederacy?

No matter the source of the irritation, the soldiers garrisoned at Fort Stannis were paying the price of it. Short of a few critical personnel that were absolutely indispensable inside Fort Stannis, the rest of the men and the women had been participating in the searches to find back the two missing patrols. Infantrymen, artillerymen, tank men had taken their snow rackets – or their skis for those who were more adept with this method of locomotion – and left the warmth of the fires inside the old citadel for the freezing snowstorms.

"The Lord Commander would even less happy if I lost him another patrol in a blizzard." Corrected Maric Seaworth.

Several heads nodded at the rightness of this affirmation. It was always more difficult in times of winter to receive new recruits at Fort Stannis. No need to add their names to the tally of the dead. And the patrols were dead; there was little hope of them being alive remaining in the ranks. Whether they had been buried under an avalanche or not, the ugly problems of their food rations running out three days ago made their hypothetic survival a very unlikely outcome.

"We go back to the camp!"

This was in many ways an unnecessary order; aside from the five men who had already been forced to turn aside the rest of Maric's little expedition the other guardsmen had no more wish than him to endure a blizzard in the wilderness alone and unsupported.

The progression was now a bit less difficult, given that they had already created their own trail in the deep snow.

Then they felt it. Tremors were coming from the ground. At first the Seaworth Captain believed they had by mistake advanced on a large and instable mass of snow hours ago and now it was detaching...but there were on a relatively flat terrain and the snow mantle was not fissuring or collapsing to signify the apparition of a crevasse.

The tremors grew stronger and soon it was the entire ground which was dancing under their feet.

"Earthquake! Earthquake!"

The dreaded word was in every mouth. These events were unfortunately not rare near Fort Stannis and the Frostfangs chain: the mountain range was a very active seismic area. The very big earthquakes were however rare...but it wasn't their lucky day. As three of the men marching before him lost their equilibrium and taking a deep plunge in the snow, the earthquake violently shook the earth. So violently in fact that Maric was ready to bet everyone had felt it to the Bay of Seals and the harbour of Hardhome City.

The members of the Dawn Order who had not collapsed were holding desperately on their walk sticks...and then it was over. The ground stopped shaking, the weird sensation stopped and they could welcome back at the head of their preoccupations the winds of winter and the snow. Maric gave a hand to Jonos, allowing his muscular subordinate to stand back on his feet, with the other soldiers imitating him. The snow being a nice soft pillow, nobody looked hurt.

More than one would need at least a quick trip to the healers when they came back but the major injuries had been thankfully avoided. The weather and the walk conditions were bad enough, no sane commander cherished the idea of towing a wounded man to the camp and eventually to Fort Stannis. Especially since the deployment of vehicles in this region was the next best thing to impossible.

Just as they were able to resume their return to base and laugh of their clumsiest comrades' predicament, the ground shook again. The replica of the earthquake was even more dangerous than the first incident, and this time large quantities of snow started to move, whatever cohesion they had had no more.

The men of the Order of the Dawn ran. There was no benefit staying there, and moments ago they had passed a large ice block standing vigil over these deserted lands. If they managed to reach it and the thing had not collapsed...

Ultimately, the earthquake stopped well before they managed to reach this point. The fact every Dawn guardsman was helping standing up those who stumbled in their progression had its role to play of course.

"Good." Grunted Wullard 'Iron-Drinker', his voice full of relief. "With luck there will be no more."

"You just had to jinx it, don't you?" Asked Sergeant Asric.

"Captain, look!"

A trembling finger was pointed towards the centre of the plain. Maric first thought was just that the dark grey clouds announcing the ferocious blizzard had disappeared. However this was just an afterthought when he saw that a kilometres-wide hole was now dug here.

For a moment the young Seaworth man believed he was the victim of a hallucination. This was the only explanation possible. It was not the first time he and the rest of the veterans patrolled in the vicinity. They had never seen anything like this before. Direbears and various winter-dwelling animals were common. Hills and hilarious snow figures in the landscape were possible. Finding the remains of missing soldiers and war equipment of ages was rare but it could happen. But gigantic holes appearing from nowhere?

"What in the name of the Old Gods is that?" Exclaimed Janos Kark-Umber.

"It's a bloody hole." Grumbled Justin Bridge, not caring about pronouncing the evidence.

"Maybe it's the caldera of a volcano." Proposed a soldier on Marci's right.

"A volcano?" The tone of Wullard was heavy with scepticism. "So far in the North?"

"It would explain the earthquake."

"Do you think our men might have fallen in it?" Demanded Maric without speaking to anybody in particular.

"Ordinarily I would say no, but with all the blizzards these last days..."

For the rest of their existence and possibly the afterlife which came after the Dawn soldiers could never forget what happened next. From the depths of the hole a pure ray of blue light materialised itself and soared through the heavens.

It did not stay that way for long. After mere seconds, the ray became a pillar of energy. Then it was an inferno, engulfing the total circumference of the hole. A fantastic quantity of light and energy was propelled in the skies, blinding partially the guardsmen despite their goggles.

"Magic." The word was pronounced in a tone that was half-blessing, half-malediction.

"MAGIC!"

"It's magic! We have to warn Fort Stannis!"

Maric could not help but snicker at this affirmation. Given the size of this inferno making a fantastic link between earth and sky, the only question was if this incredible apparition was visible from Winterfell and White Harbor. Fort Stannis, Fort Slayer, Castle Black...all the fortifications, settlements and outposts functioning under the authority of any of the Orders were seeing it.

Part of his mind desperately wanted to believe this was nothing but a natural phenomenon like the boreal aurora. Realistically, the sinister pale blue colour of this magical hurricane did not leave much hope.

Every child from the snowy peaks of the North to the deserts of Dorne knew the tales. From childhood the disobeying youngsters learnt of the dark menace having nearly engulfed the world twice in ice and death. Of the blue eyes and the blue magic which brought unrelenting torment and merciless killings with them.

Human sorcerers had not that kind of their powers to their fingertips. They never had this level of power; else it would be magicians and not kings and queens governing the realms. Tens of thousands warlocks, spellsingers, wargs and Red Priests would be needed to unite their forces and do something like that. They weren't that many men and women with a magical gift from Masseica to Asshai.

"Funny lightshow." Commented a man in hysterics. "Too bad we didn't bring food and authentic Umber vodka for the party!"

Sometimes the Dawn soldiers should just close their mouths. That was at least the opinion of their superior when a second ray of magic burst on the right of the first. Then came a third. A fourth. In a matter of minutes, the frozen wastes of the Lands of Always Winter were exploding in a cascade of blue light. If anyone wanted a proof this was not something answering the laws of physics, the snow inside this corona of ice magic was not melting. No, it was thrown in the air and then modified in form and nature.

Under their stunned eyes, the recognisable forms of powerful walls were built at a speed no human engineer could conceive. Reality was overwritten under the sheer power of magic infused under the snow. Everything was bathed in a blue light. Unlike the sun, it was shining with a true expression of malevolence.

Images began to appear, like a veil between the worlds had been pierced. First a great tree could be admired, one so immense it made the vegetal giants of the Haunted forests ridiculous in comparison. The images after this one were so rapid it was difficult to describe them accurately. Mountains, plains and snow were definitely present. There were battlefields and great citadels, fields of flowers so beautiful he felt tears of joy glimpsing them.

The last image was not engaging though. It was a maze of fortresses inspiring fear and revulsion. It was a lifeless place of ice and sorcery where horrors walked free and unshackled.

The hurricane of magic flickered and diminished at last. But the construction just watched didn't disappear. Where the snow plains had been located, this assemblage of towers and great walls had replaced them. Icy structures supernaturally high were now crushing the rest of the scene by their simple existence.

The worst was yet to come. A shrieking sound able to freeze the blood in a man's body resonated all over the winter lands and a huge flying figure flew under the grey sky. New roars were screamed and long blue magic trails erupted from the maw of an animal which could be no bird of prey.

 _It's an ice dragon. It must be_.

But if it was effectively a monster like the one mounted by the Night's Queen, it was a colossal one. The Targaryen dragon bonded with Aena Targaryen at Fort Stannis had only one-third of its span.

More and more roars came from the fortress. One by one, flying figures soared from the ground and went dancing into the Northern skies. A storm of dragons was doing acrobatics around the highest monuments built for their species.

 _By the Gods Old and New..._

This was more dragons than any military power, including the Valyrian Freehold, had ever mustered on a single field of battle.

 _We are so screwed._

The Captain tried to chastise himself for this defeatist thought, but there was optimism and there was reality. Anti-aerial artillery and the best fighters in service could bring down dragons...if they were young and had a large numerical superiority.

Here, they were far too many. There was only one choice left allowing his command to live another day.

"Run! RUN!"

"Run! We must warn Fort Stannis!"

What a warning would do in this case, Maric had absolutely no idea. One fire-breathing dragon against hundreds of cold ones? A few thousands men against the greatest flying threat of the Known World?

They had to try. They had to warn everyone the first spark of the Third Long Night had just been lighted.

The Dawn guardsmen ran, desperately trying to put the greatest amount of distances between themselves and this insane threat. It was going to be difficult, with the enemy having the ability to see them from the sky and their group being stuck on the ground...but complaining would not change their problems.

It appeared the Others had noticed them from the very beginning unfortunately. All over the hills that were around them, flashes of blue light announced the arrival of the heralds of death and their abominations.

Maric and his men stopped running. There was no point anymore. If they had to escape, they would have to thin a bit the ranks of their pursuers.

"Night gathers and now my watch begins." Began Ulfric Umber.

Like one men, the rifles and the obsidian ammunition came out the packs.

"It shall not end until my death." Continued Asric as the wildfire-launcher was activated.

"I shall take no wife, hold no lands, fathers no children." Osric's impressive grenade-launcher came out of nowhere to accompany his eager rumble.

"I shall wear no crowns and win no glory." Added Maric Seaworth, drawing his Valyrian sword.

"I shall live and die at my post." Declared Kavel Dorver.

"I am the sword in the darkness."

Daven put his ceremonial warhorn to his mouth and sounded it three times. Like in the times of legends, the warning sounded in the presence of the Great Enemy resonated.

"I am the watcher on the walls."

Each word was now pronounced with more and more volume by the guardsmen, as they shouted over the shrieks and the morbid imprecations of their incoming enemies.

"I am the fire that burns against the cold, the Light that brings the Dawn, the Horn that wakes the Sleepers, the shield that guards the realm of men."

A mass of...abominations went straight at their positions. They were uncountable and they had blue eyes...but what were they exactly, Maric had no idea. These weren't the animated corpses of humans. Livid and spider-like, they were abhorrent and nauseating to look at.

 _They may be the successors of the wights. And we don't know any of their weaknesses_.

"I pledge my life and honour of the Night's Watch, for this night and all nights to come." Finished Jonos with his comrades-in-arms.

Maric issued them the last order he was probably to give them in his lifetime.

"Stand your ground brothers. For the Dawn!"

"FOR THE DAWN!"

 **The End**


End file.
